7 años (2016) Reviews

• Tight, engaging movie

  mark_l_nicholson2016-10-28

  Since no one has written a review of this yet, I will write one. We are learning Spanish and so we watch mostly Spanish movies and TV which is why we watched this. It's a well scripted, well acted movie that kept us interested from start to finish. It's about four business partners who have been ripping off the government and who are on the point of being caught. The only solution they can come up with is for one of them to take the fall (and go to prison for 7 years) so the other three can go free and so the business can survive. So they bring in a mediator who helps them with the process. There is so much on the line that they get real honest with each other and lots of stuff gets drudged up. The characters seemed believable, the casting was great, the pace was good. I would be happy if most of the movies I watch were half as good as this one.

• All out war in the board room

  Bromios2016-10-29

  This drama is very much in the style of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf'. Instead of a mid western college, this film is set in the office of a Spanish company. The four founders of the company are in deep trouble, all of them about to go to jail for tax evasion. However, there might be a way out, if one of them can take the fall and go to prison for seven years, then the rest can be saved. The four founders hire a mediator to help them work through this dilemma. The founders are three handsome men and a beautiful female CFO. All are young, clever and persuasive. The mediator is the perfect foil, old, short, plain looking and slightly withdrawn. Over the course of the film, the founders tear each other apart whilst the mediator gently moves them towards a conclusion. A truly gripping drama. The only draw back for a non-English speaker is that the dialog is so complex and the speech so rapid fire, that sometimes it is hard read all the sub-title. A great film, almost certain to be done over by Hollywood, watch it before it is ruined!

• A rare movie, with a rare plot, with exceptional performers. The finale hurts the movie, that's because the 8.0

  bola_de_pu2017-09-09

  "Dirty clothes are washed at home". That's the "saying" that define these movie. At first, I start seeing these movie because it's show up in the references of IMDb and the name of Juan Pablo Raba and Paco León stand out, well known performers in the Spanish and Latin Cinematography, but I was surprised in the good way by the performance of Juana Acosta. I did not know her but I'm sure will looking more of her in the future. These movies are hard to do, when you only have 5 performers and only one setting you think that would facilitate the live to the director, writers, producers and performers; but nothing further from the truth. For a movie like this work, you need to have and excellent chemistry between the performers and a strong intensity in the dialogue to keep the eye of the viewer interested. That's hard to do, you don't have the landscapes and scenery to entertain the common eye, you don't have the plot to produce fights, gunshots and unbridled violence to quench thirst of the spectators, so you're depending the 99% of the chemistry of you performers. And these movie does exactly that, the chemistry between the performers was so big and well reinforced that if i will recommend these movie to you, the main reason will be because of that. These guys truly can act and I think the dialogue/plot works in favor of them in these one. Of course, you need to be bilingual to enjoy 100% these movies, in the subtitles there are so many things missed sometimes, specially in Netflix. But, if you're a fan of the Spanish Cinematography I will recommend these movie to you: short and well acted. My only complaint will be the finale, oh my, I truly want their friendship collapse in all the possible ways.

• Realistic, tightly-written little drama

  devikamenon2016-11-04

  Imagine you are one of four partners of a highly successful technology firm. Imagine that you become frustrated with the government spending of your hard-earned tax money in your country, Spain, and decide to overcome the problem by committing tax fraud and stashing away millions in secure Swiss accounts. Now, the Spanish tax authorities smell a rat and are about to pounce on your clandestine accounts et al. You are all certain to go to jail for at least seven years. But. There is a way out. If one of you takes the fall, not all need to be imprisoned. One can save the other three. How do you decide who makes the sacrifice? This is the premise of the hot-off-the-press drama 7 Años. It premiered on the 28th of October, and thank you Netflix for bringing us this first original European Spanish production. So, the four friends and business partners are Luis, Veronica, Marcel, and Carlos. Rather astutely, they hire a mediator to help them solve their conundrum. (Jose the mediator has a rather thorny task, obviously, but he's offered a cushy sum for his troubles.) The very fact that the four have hired him at all tells us something about them, and as we progress in this tight 77-minute drama, we see more and more of these characters. Read full review at: https://devikamenon.blogspot.com/2016/11/foreign-movie-friday-7- anos.html

• Predictable end did not spoil tense build up

  McEwansExported2017-04-18

  Really good acting and interesting character development in a tense and claustrophobic setting. Big personalities battling to expose each other's emotional weaknesses that pretty much covered all 7 of the deadly sins. The premise for the plot of corporate financial wrongdoing did not make you favor one character over another so was left to the film to lead you to the same conclusions on each person as each of the characters would have as they attacked each other on a personal level. The attacks started fairly civilized as they utilize a third party but quickly drop the passive aggressiveness and go full on. This transition is really the point of the film and the pace is just about right. The ending was a bit abrupt and disappointingly predictable but by that time the viewers' verdict was set and the ending, while a let down, was somewhat inconsequential to the success of the film.