Los ojos de Julia (2010)

The story of a woman who is slowly losing her sight whilst trying to investigate the mysterious death of her twin sister.

Director:

Guillem Morales

Writers:

Guillem Morales (screenplay), Oriol Paulo (screenplay)

Stars:

Belén Rueda, Lluís Homar, Pablo Derqui

11 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Belén Rueda	...	Julia Levin / Sara
Lluís Homar	...	Isaac
Pablo Derqui	...	Ángel
Francesc Orella	...	Inspector Dimas
Joan Dalmau	...	Créspulo
Julia Gutiérrez Caba	...	Soledad
Boris Ruiz	...	Blasco
Dani Codina	...	Iván
Andrea Hermosa	...	Lía
Daniel Grao	...	Dr. Román
Pere Ventura	...	Policía Aparcamiento 1
Oscar Foronda	...	Policía Aparcamiento 2
Ramón Moreno	...	Enfermero 1
José Sánchez Orosa	...	Enfermero 2 (as José Sánchez)
Carlus Fàbrega	...	Subinspector (as Carlus Fabrega)

Storyline

After the death of the blind Sara, who hanged herself in the basement of her house, her twin sister Julia suspects that she was actually murdered. Julia has a degenerative problem with her eyes and is losing her sight, and she temporarily moves with her husband Isaac to Sara's house to arrange her funeral. Julia goes to the Centro Baumann for the blind, which Sara frequented, and she learns from other members that Sara had a boyfriend. Julia is chased by a mysterious man, but police inspector Dimas does not believe her. Julia follows Sara's last steps trying to find the identity of her secret lover. Julia is surrounded by deaths and weird events while she loses her sight.

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Plot Keywords:

twin sisters | suicide | sister sister relationship | blindness | female protagonist | 

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Taglines:

A new thriller from the producers of "The Orphanage".

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally planned to be filmed in English language. Once Guillermo del Toro became involved as a producer and Universal Pictures saw an opportunity to start its first Spanish production, the idea was changed.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Sara: [Talking to someone hiding in the dark] Listen.
[pause]
Sara: Alright, you win. Could you at least stop that song? You know I hate it.
[she receives no answer. Only music playing in the background]
Sara: [nervous] Why are you so quiet?
[thunders strike, briefly lightning the living room]
Sara: Say something, for fuck sake!

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Connections

Featured in Starfilm (2017)

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Soundtracks

The Look of Love
Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David
Performed by Giulia y los Tellarini

User Reviews

Good, but could have been great

Julia, (Belen Rueda) like her twin sister Sara suffers from a degenerative nerve disease which is slowly but surely turning her blind, with her twin having succumbed to total blindness earlier. When her sister dies, apparently of a suicide, Julia feels there's something not quite right. Her sister wasn't depressed, and in fact had been looking forward to a potentially curable operation. Plus, there's rumours of Sara having had a mysterious boyfriend. But why didn't he go the funeral? Doubted by her Psychologist husband Isaacs (Lluis Homar) Julia resolves to investigate. But her disease is getting worse, and she keeps feeling that somebody is watching her every move. Is she cracking up? Or is something more sinister at play here?

Julia's Eyes starts off very promising indeed, with a gripping first hour, as director Guillem Morales ratchets up the tension with some clever visual tricks and an increasingly dark and creepy tone, as well as some entertaining red herrings.

However, by the third act, it unfortunately gets kinda... silly. It also unfortunately has a rather ludicrous revelation, as well as some clichéd bad decision making on the part of the protagonist. It also could have been a leaner affair, being rather needlessly overlong.

As well as this, the film doesn't really cover all the elements of its rather layered plot as well as it could have, with one or two loose ends that will very probably have the viewer raising a suspicious eyebrow.

That having said, it has some decent performances, is pretty absorbing and again, has a nigh on excellent first half.

Any horror or chiller fan should find much to like here, but ultimately it comes across as rather dissatisfying, considering its ambition.

7/10- A solid enough film, that's worth checking out overall, but potentially could have been excellent.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Spain] Official site [France]

Country:

Spain Mexico

Language:

Spanish

Release Date:

29 October 2010 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Los ojos de Julia

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Budget:

EUR5,000,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$16,934,369

Company Credits

Production Co:

Antena 3 Films, Canal+ España, Catalan Films & TV

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1