This movie is about a Chilean teenager (Manuela Martell) who is orphaned in Italy after her ex-pat parents are killed in a traffic accident. She tries to care for her slightly younger brother, but is frustrated trying to find legitimate employment (she works in a hair salon, but is not allowed to cut anyone's hair). She gets sexually involved with some older friends of her brother who are both "personal trainers" and small-time thugs, and they enlist her as the sexual "bait" in a plot to rob a supposedly wealthy, blind American (Rutger Hauer) who is a former "muscleman" star of Italian peplums (60's sword and sandal films). But she begins to form sympathy for her intended target.
This isn't a great film, but it is a GOOD film and the kind of film they need to make more of. I think it is an Italian-Chilean co-production, but it has a genuine international feel to it since it features Rutger Hauer, a cult legend in both American films ("Blade Runner", "The Hitcher") and Dutch films before that ("Turkish Delight", "Soldier of Orange"). It's appropriate that he's a peplum actor here because the peplums were some of the first films the once vaunted Italian film industry was able to export internationally on their way to eventually becoming a more low-rent but legitimate competitor to Hollywood in 60's and 70's (before the bottom completely fell out by the mid-80's). Rutger Hauer is good in this as a tragi-comic, lonely blind man (certainly a lot better than he is in Dario Argento's "Dracula", which may have been what brought him to Rome). But even if he weren't, he's become a truly iconic presence by this point.
Manuela Martelli is one of the best young actresses in Chile. She was is "Machuca", perhaps the best Chilean film in recent memory, and a more obscure adult-oriented teen film called "B-Happy". There just aren't many films made though in a country of only 15 million, or many opportunities for film actresses, so it's good to see her in this. She really goes toe-to-toe with Rutger Hauer (sometimes literally since his character likes to strip her naked, rub oil all over her beautiful body, and "wrestle" in the bed with her). She might not be considered a "hot" actress if you stood her next to someone like Megan Fox or Alexandra Daddario, but not only wouldn't any of the "hot" Hollywood actresses like that ever take on a role like this, they'd never be able to pull off if they did. A lot of young Hollywood actresses today won't do extensive nudity or erotic roles because they seem to think it would make them porn actresses, but that might be because they don't have much more talent than porn actresses to begin with. It actually takes a lot of talent to play a truly erotic, sensual role like this, let alone all the other dramatic paces Martelli has to do in this film.
Of course, the reason America doesn't have many actresses that can do roles like this is because they very rarely make movies like this. And that is a shame really. There isn't even much left of American "Indiewood" today to even justify the "indie" part. So it's nice to see a small but up-and-coming national film industry (Chile) combine with a once great one (Italy) to give a role to an iconic older actor and an opportunity to a sexy AND genuinely talented young actress. Maybe the movie itself is no great shakes, but it doesn't really need to be.
