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Someone remarked this was a film noir. Hello? The best of the genre were films that had an atmosphere and mystery around them. Most of the action in those films happened at night with water soaked streets, shadows, evil, bad people, valiant detectives, great private investigators, cigarette smoke, drinking, bad women, dives, etc.

Not so this one. I would call this and this genre "film blanc", or better, "film blah" since most of the action occurs during the daytime, or at least nothing of the above ever happens and it's just blah, blah, blah.

Director Marias has tried to make this story of a crime where a man is killed and all points to the wrong person: the police detective with the drinking problem.

As played by Antonio Resines, this man has serious problems. He has a wife to die for who wants out of the marriage for no apparent reasons, other than with his affection for the bottle. Maybe a little Viagra would have kept them together. Who knows?

The characters are paper thin. Anyone can figure out what is coming. Suffice it to say that the detective has enough smarts to figure out who did it, but was it necessary to have Resines in a polyester suit during the Madrid's heat wave? I guess it's an inside joke for the in crowd in Spain that must have thought this was a great film.

Resines as a character actor, yes, but Resines as a lead man, no way Jose!