A young man (Mario Casas) who wants to live in prison and will do whatever it takes to get there, raising questions such as if those who care about him will get to stop him from committing increasingly serious crimes. His sister Abril (Anna Castillo), with whom he lives and helps him, tries to get him to give up this ridiculous goal, but she can't shake his desire. The problem is that prison is, for everyone, a punishment for criminals, a place no one is supposed to want to go, with one exception: our starring. The movie is developed through a story divided into seven chapters and inexplicably titled after Snow White's dwarves-you know, Dopey, Bashful, Sleepy, Clumsy, Grumpy, Wise, and Happy. A film that disrupts the natural order of things!.
Produced by Martin Scorsese, starring Mario Casas, and directed by Rodrigo Cortés, 'Escape' is a tragicomedy, an action thriller, a prison drama,... or none of these things. It displays a weird script written by Rodrigo Cortés himself, based on the novel by Enrique Rubio. This unclassified film with Kafkaesque roots is the story of N, a man so desperate his only purpose in life is to go to prison, and once inside, to remain there forever. And to achieve that purport, he'll do anything: rob, fight, commit all kinds of crimes, escape...It's an uneven and strange movie; so, 'Escape' presents itself as an unclassifiable, bizarre and very free exercise, with a tone that fluctuates between parody and caricature.
Of course, Rodrigo Cortés' direction, Victor Reyes' soundtrack (Down a Dark Hall, Buried), David Azcano's cinematography (Teresa, Love Gets a Room) giving a touch of class, delivering the goods, but Escape's true strength lies in its dedicated cast. Mario Casas (Cross the line, The Photographer of Mauthausen) bravely immerses himself in a very physical and complex role, playing a character burdened by pain and trauma following the death of his wife. However, his performance sometimes suffers from excessive gestures. N.'s desire-a character whose name changes several times throughout the plot-is not to escape from prison, but to enter it to flee a life he doesn't believe he deserves to live, and Casas perfectly captures this idea. Regarding the supporting cast, thre're great Spanish actors, such as: Anna Castillo (Wind Flowers, Mediterraneo), in the role of N.'s sister, Guillermo Toledo as a peculiar psychologist, José Garcia as a tough, bossy inmate, José Sacristán as a stiff-upper-lip judge, Albert Pla as N.'s cellmate, Blanca Portillo as Dr Giráldez, Josep Maria Pou as priest, Juanjo Puigcorbé as Prison Director and others who do their part to add a touch of comic relief or absurdty to the story.
A film that quickly becomes a parade of ridiculous and grotesque situations one after another, in which Cortés seems to invite the viewer to abandon all logic and immerse themselves wholeheartedly in the protagonist's journey. However, the Galician writer's script proves to be too insubstantial, always revolving around the same idea and failing to "escape" from its initial premise.
Financed by none other than veteran maestro Scorsese, this is the second film directed in Spanish by the original director Rodrigo Cortés, fifteen years after his debut feature, The Contestant. Rodrigo Cortés himself defines Escape as: "Eastwood's Escape from Alcatraz, but in reverse." This Spanish filmmaker has directed notorious international successes as ¨Red Lights¨, ¨Dawn in dark hill¨ , ¨Blackwood¨. Being his previous film: ¨Love gets a room(2021) a clautrophobic and stagy musical set in the Warsaw Ghetto. His biggest hit was: ¨Buried¨ and another success was ¨The Contestant¨ (El Concursante) that won Maestre Mateo Award to support cast , best director and editing and Malaga Film Festival, best director , best cinematography , and Rodrigo Cortés has got several Goyas and nominations. 'Escape' rating: 6/10. An acceptable and passable film that does not reach the remarkable, due to the continually absurd and repetitive situations that take place throughout the story.
