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Apr 14, 2021

The Second Chance of "Who Killed Sara"

You may recall that when I watched the first scene of Who Killed Sara? (Quien mató a Sara) on Netflix, I thought I was watching a trite cliche scene in which husband Alex (Leo Deluglio) and wife Sara (Ximena Lamadrid) go boating with friends, discuss how much they love each other, and kiss.  Then  Sara goes parasailing, but the strap breaks, and she dies.  The 3,000th dead wife so far this year.  Yawn.

I am told that Sara is actually his sister; in the States we might be creeped out by brothers and sisters smooching, but it's normal in Mexico.  I'm also told that there are gay characters.  So Who Killed Sara gets another chance.


Scene 2:
  Alex, bearded and depressed after eighteen years in prison, no doubt for Sara's murder. (He is now played by Manolo Cardona, who has many beefcake shots on the internet, but they're mostly secured by .wept, .jfif, and "we can't download photo).  

 He showers (nice butt and prison muscles!), eats his dinner slop, works out (more muscles!), goes to work (something to do with computer components).  A visit from his lawyer: reduced sentence for good behavior!   He's getting out tomorrow!



Scene 3:
Beautiful mountainous countryside. Old Guy Cesar is teaching his grandson Bruno how to hunt: "Let's find out how big your balls are."  Well, he's a little young, but ok....  

Bruno hesitates, so Old Guy Cesar grabs the gun from him and does the job.  He is irate: "I don't want another puta in my family" (I thought it meant asshole, but the subtitles say it's a homophobic slur).

Scene 4: Back in prison, Alex ask his lawyer if the Lazcano family knows that he's getting out.  

Old Guy Cesar gets a phone call:  he knows now!  He's not going to tell his son Rodolfo, since his big promotion is coming up, and this would just upset him.    Besides, the family is very powerful now, and can stop whatever revenge schemes Alex has concocted.  

Scene 5: Back in prison.  Alex in his well-appointed single cell.  After lights out, he opens a secret compartment and pulls out a mysterious key.


Scene 6:
Morning.  Alex collects his stuff, changes clothes, and leaves the prison, flashing back to the day in the hospital when they told him that Sara was dead, then to a young Rodolfo (Andres Baia) and Cesar pretending not to see him during his trial.  You know, dead wife or dead sister, the tropes are the same. The only difference is, now Sara can have a boyfriend to suspect.  

Back home at the Colima de Paz (his house had a name?), Alex chops through the weeds and vines.  He inspects the interior and flashes back to a romantic...um, I mean affectionate incident with Sara, and thinks about how much he loved her.  Then he puts flowers on her grave and apologizes to his dead Mom for revenge he's about to embark on.  


Scene 7:
 A young woman named Elisa is on an airplane, gazing at a picture of Cesar on her cell phone.  The passenger next to her asks if it's her boyfriend?  No -- her father.  Apparently a conflation of familial and romantic affection is commonplace in this society.  

At the airport, Chema (Eugenio Siller) greets Elisa with a bunch of balloons and says how much he loves her.  Must be her brother.  He introduces her to his new boyfriend, Lorenzo (Luis Roberto Guzman, below).  She kisses him right on the lips!  A complete stranger?  I'm nauseated.  I might have to stop watching this because of the disturbing displays of affection, in spite of the gay couple.  

Scene 8: Alex sternly uses The Key to open a safe deposit box at the bank, which an older inmate he befriended told him will "help your revenge plans."  It contains a lot of money and jewelry.   He buys a new car, cleans up his house, adds a lot of surveillance cameras, and prepares for his first target: Rodolfo, whom I assume was Sarah's boyfriend at the time (they are shown kissing, but of course Sara could be kissing her priest, her pet groomer, or the Uber driver).

Flashback to shortly after Sara's death, Cesar telling Alex that his son Rodolfo made a mistake, but he's not going to let it destroy the family. Alex should take the blame for Sara's death.   "You and Rodolfo are like brothers.  You help each other.  Help us, Alex."  Wait -- why is it better for Alex to be destroyed?  And wouldn't a trial have things like, you know, evidence?   


Scene 9:
Modern day Rodolfo (Alejandro Nones) is awakened by his wife, Sofia, who announces that she's ovulating and tries to eat his shoulder.  He doesn't want to have sex  -- or whatever weird kinky thing she is suggesting).  He gets up and goes jogging; or, rather, running at full speed while flashing back to sex with Sara (who kissed her brother on the mouth, but never tried to eat his shoulder).

Scene 10: Alex sternly sets up the video equipment in his house and sits around being depressed.  Meanwhile, Cesar and his grandson Bruno (from Scene 2) are flying home via helicopter, and at a casino, Elisa congratulates Rodolfo on his promotion.  

Chema appears at the casino with his boyfriend Lorenzo.  Mom is angry: "Why couldn't you come alone? Why disgrace the family by bringing him?  And don't call him  'Mi Amor.'  There are people around!"

Cesar gets off the helicopter and complains that Alex sent him a photo of "that slut my son was crazy about."  Out of prison a day, and already causing trouble!  He tells his associate to notify security and "find the bastard."  

Scene 11: Alex going through Sara's stuff, like the diary where she wrote "Sara & Alex" surrounded by hearts.  Sure, girls dream of marrying their brothers all the time.  I am not creeped out.  I am not creeped out.  I am not...   He sends Rodolfo a copy of Sara's ultrasound photo -- she was pregnant when she died!


Meanwhile, Cesar approaches Lorenzo, Chema's boyfriend, to meet him for the first time.  At first he's friendly:  "Where are you from?  What do you do?  Italian, and a lawyer!  The broads must be endless!"  Wait -- you don't know that he's gay?  

Then Cesar turns sinister: "As far as everyone knows, Chema is interested in women.  And so is his boyfriend.  Are we clear?" 

Suddenly Alex appears on all the tvs in the casino and announces that he is coming for revenge against the Lazcano family!  

Scene 12: Cesar rushes back to his office and demands to know how Alex managed to hack into the casino's computer system (I'm wondering that myself.  Did Alex study hacking in prison, or does he have an accomplice?)  Rodolfo is worried, but Cesar says he will handle it.  

Meanwhile, Chema flashes back to an argument he had with Rodolfo just after Sara's murder: "You're a piece of shit!  Alex is your friend, and you're fucking him!  You're fucked up, man!"  Elisa, then a young girl, sees them fighting.

Scene 13:  Rodolfo goes to Sara's old house and flashes back to picking her up on the day of the party and trying to swallow her shoulder.  

Suddenly the curtains open.  Alex is inside!  He rushes away.

Alex gets a text from an unknown number:  "Welcome back!  I know who killed Sara.  It wasn't Rodolfo."

While Alex is wondering who sent the text and remembering how much he loved Sara, Cesar's goons open fire through the windows.  Yeah, kind of obvious -- you should really have chosen another hideout.  He is shot, but I doubt that he is killed.  The end.

Beefcake:  A lot.  Most every guy ends up shirtless.  

Other Sights: Generic rich people's houses and offices.

Gay Characters: Two, at least.  Maybe Bruno, also.

Creepy Brother-Sister Romance: Yes.

Mystery:  Who is texting Alex?  And who killed Sara?

Will I Keep Watching:  Depends on how many creepy displays of affection there are.

2 comments:

  1. The trailer looks good I will have to check it out

    ReplyDelete
  2. Still creepy. Reminds me of a shitpost I made about the rise in dead wives and girlfriends in movies, refrigerators going out during the Texas blizzard, so we need more women to fill them.

    ReplyDelete

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