Dir. Alfonso Pineda-Ulloa, Mexico, 2008, 86 minutes

Alfonso Pineda-Ulloa's thriller is a stylish feature debut that infuses Alfred Hitchcock's influence into every frame of a story about mutual obsession. Love, Pain & Vice Versa may not rock the box office - although it seems to have potential for modest success - but it certainly points to a future for its director in commercial movies, once he jettisons some unnecessary mannerisms.

The dark drama, which opens in Mexico this autumn, lacks the originality or signature style of fellow Mexican directors like Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Inarritu, or Alfonso Cuaron. Yet the film's lead actors, Barbara Mori and Argentina's Leonardo Sbaraglia, have a magnetism that could help Love, Pain & Vice Versa in the subtitled US market if the film opens theatrically. Until then, its best bets for theatrical success are Mexico and Spain, and festival exposure will continue post-Tribeca.

Love comes to Chelo (Mori), a stunning architect, only in her dreams, which leads her friends to mock her as the girl for whom no man is good enough. In pursuit of the man of her nightly obsessions, Chelo inflicts bruises on herself and reports a rape to the sceptical police, led by poker-faced Agente Salas (Cosio). She describes the suspect from her subconscious, hoping that a sketch of the man of her dreams might enable detectives to apprehend him.

Doctor Marquez (Sbaraglia), a cardiologist has parallel nightmares, and although he's about to marry Marcela, an artist, he begins his own pursuit of Chelo. As the action moves in and out of dreams, Chelo spots the betrothed couple on the streets and runs Marcela down with her car, killing her. Now Doctor Marquez is a suspect in that killing, while a police sketch of Chelo also implicates her in the murder.

Love Pain & Vice Versa takes place in an unidentifiable, rainy Mexico City neighborhood. Music that echoes Hitchcock composer Bernard Herrmann pulsates so insistently with every movement of the camera that you almost expect to see a knife-wielding Anthony Perkins from Psycho come around the corner in a dress.

Young Alfonso Pineda-Ulloa directs the film like a calling card, as if he's out to impress future higher-budget clients with a seductive story assembled from confusing fragments, or to dazzle cinephiles with allusions to films ranging from Hitchcock classics to Amelie and Christoffer Boe's fragmentary Reconstruction. Playing with the notion of a young woman's search for a Prince Charming (based on a short story by Blas Valdez), Pineda-Ulloa is constructs a dark sexual fairy tale. Yet the problem with Love, Pain & Vice Versa is that its sophomoric flourishes often feel academic, without any erotic power.

The film's script, by Alex Marino, seems lopsided in favour of Chelo's story. Dialogue is minimal, and the intrigue advances on the weight of obsessions that are revealed in violent dream sequences.

With extraordinarily expressive faces like those of Mori and Sbaraglia to work with, cinematographer Damian Garcia builds his tension effectively with close-ups. And the actors rise to the challenge: Mori's gaze draws the viewer into the character, while Sbaraglia has an Armani-model allure that makes Chelo's obsession all too plausible.

Production Companies/Backers

Panamax

Filmax International

Lemon Films

US Distributor

Panamax

International Sales

Filmax International

+ (34) 933-368-555

Producers

Nick Spicer

Billy Rovzar

Fernando Rovzar

Julio Fernandez

Screenwriter

Alex Marino

Director of Photography

Damian Garcia

Editor

Jorge Macaya

Original Music

Roque Banos

Production Designer

Sandra Cabriada

Main Cast

Barbara Mori

Leonardo Sbaraglia

Marina De Tavira

Irene Azuela

Joaquin Cosio

Tony Dalton