DUBAI: There’s definite potential in this Spanish crime thriller. But there’s also a lot that will remind you of numerous other films and shows of this genre. Ultimately, there’s too much of the latter for that potential to shine through.
The basics: A woman (played by Ana Rujas) is discovered in a shipping container in Barcelona port. She has been tortured. She doesn’t remember who she is or how she got there (cross that off your crime-trope bingo card). The two detectives — Anna Ripoll (Candela Pena) and Quique Zarate (Pol Lopez) — tasked with keeping her alive have to work out the answers.
The action moves briskly. The mystery woman, we soon discover, is the sister of an ex-informer for Zarate. An informer who disappeared after making corruption claims against him that mean he’s now being investigated by internal affairs. Reason enough for him to bear a grudge, you’d think?
As for Ripoll — she’s another trope: a detective who’s suffered personal trauma and loss and has returned to work earlier than most of her colleagues (including her boss) think is wise, but believes that the job is the only thing that will get her through.
When the mystery woman is attacked in hospital, and breaks out some serious martial-arts skills to fight off her assailant, some of her memories start to return. But can the detectives trust what she says? Can they trust each other? Can they trust anyone? You get the picture. And, yes, it all expands into a wider conspiracy where the good guys might be the bad guys.
It’s formulaic, for sure. But it’s slickly directed and plotted, and what really rescues it from becoming unforgiveable non-AI slop are the performances of Pena and Lopez. Pena brings a convincing steely weariness, while Lopez manages to breathe life into a character that could easily have turned out to be a one-dimensional throwback to Seventies cop shows when men could call their female colleagues “sweetheart,” without getting a slap. There’s an enjoyable, believable chemistry between the pair and their mystery charge.
Don’t watch “The Marked Woman” if you’re looking for groundbreaking storytelling. But as an escapist romp, it does its job.
