Directed by: Davide Melini
Starring: Carlos Bahos, Natasha Machuca, Leocricia Sabán
Although Davide Melini's THE PUZZLE was a great little short, this more recent offering is an improvement in just about every way with a bigger budget, better production values and a longer running time than its predecessor.
THE SWEET HAND OF THE WHITE ROSE begins with Mark (Bahos) who has just had a fight with his girlfriend Mary (Sabán) and is now drinking and smoking at a nightclub. In walks Mary to confront him but Mark ignores her and leaves. Mark's narrative explains the fight with his girlfriend and the fact that the road he is now currently driving down is a familiar one. In fact he is so confident with his familiarity of the winding road that he picks up his phone, a decision which will haunt him for the rest of his life. We are then introduced to a young girl (Machuca) credited only as White Rose and are shown how her path crosses fatefully and fatally with Mark's.
Right from the beginning it is obvious that this film is a noticeable improvement over THE PUZZLE especially in regards to the budget and the cinematography both in style and quality. A similarity with the former film however is the fact that it has very few spoken lines, with most of the story told through narration. Usually I'm not a big fan of narration but I felt that in this case it actually did a fine job of moving the story along. The acting is great too with all characters playing their parts perfectly, and the atmosphere was perfect.
A couple of very small criticisms would have to be the music for one, which I thought didn't entirely suit a few scenes. The second criticism I have is to do with the English dubbing however that is probably just personal preference, I have always preferred subtitles over dubbing. But these minor problems didn't bug me for long and didn't detract from the overall viewing experience.
To summarize, THE SWEET HAND OF THE WHITE ROSE is a great looking and stylish film from Melini. It is an improvement over THE PUZZLE and not only is it an enjoyable film but it also holds a special message. Well worth checking out if you have a spare 15 minutes.
To check out a whole bunch of goodies including posters, stills, movies, interviews and reviews of Melini's work you can head here.
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