Close Your Eyes marks a stunning return to cinema for revered Spanish auteur Víctor Erice after a long three-decade absence. A brilliantly structured and deeply personal mystery is slowly unveiled like a master's paintbrush on a canvas of thoughtful artistic expression. Erice's elegantly crafted protagonist sorts through the pieces of his broken life to solve a puzzle that instigated his melancholic decline. Love, loss, and reconciliation are addressed on a profound journey of understanding. The two-hour and 50-minute runtime requires a degree of patience sometimes lost on modern audiences, but this story shouldn't be rushed.
A Mysterious Disappearance in the Movie World
In the autumn of 1947, Monsieur Frank (José Coronado) is called to the beautiful Triste Le Roy château outside of Paris. Its ailing owner, Monsieur Levy (José María Pou), has an important job before his imminent passing. He wants Frank to find his daughter Judith (Venecia Franco), who was taken by her mother in Shanghai. Levy intimates that Frank may have suffered a similar loss.
In 2012 Madrid, Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo) arrives at the office of the popular television show Unresolved Cases. The host, journalist Marta Soriano (Helena Miquel), wants to investigate the 1990 disappearance of the famous Spanish actor Julio Arenas (Coronado). We learn that the brief opening scene was actually part of an unfinished film called The Farewell Gaze. Arenas starred as Monsieur Frank but vanished into thin air before shooting could be completed. Miguel was the film's writer/director and Julio's best friend, and is now being paid to discuss him in an interview.
Marta asks the downtrodden Miguel if he believes any of the conspiracy theories surrounding Julio, whose body was never found. Could he have been murdered as an act of jealousy? Julio was a well-known lothario. Maybe an aggrieved husband sought revenge? A tired and worn out Miguel doesn't want to entertain any frivolous notions. But he decides to seek out Julio's daughter (Ana Torrent) and the film's editor (Mario Pardo). Did he miss something critical that fateful day?
A Carefully Developed Film About Finding Closure
Close Your Eyes explores the impact of Julio's absence from Miguel's point of view. Everything he held dear crumbled to dust after Julio went missing. Erice is careful not to depict Miguel as a man on a mission. Money is the initial motivator for him revisiting a burdened past. But opening the door even just a little lets light shine through. Miguel can't help but remember the friends, lovers, and family that were an intricate part of his complex relationship with Julio.
Erice, known for his superb Spanish features, The Spirit of the Beehive, El Sur (The South), and the documentary, The Quince Tree Sun, lets every scene develop to its full potential. Miguel has detailed and at times heartbreaking conversations with old acquaintances about feelings long buried. He tried to escape his own suffering by running away from everything that was once held dear. But Julio still looms like a specter over a past shrouded in regret. Miguel forced himself to move on, but still aches for closure. He's a wounded man existing on the periphery as a coping mechanism. Where Erice takes Miguel in an absorbing third act is riveting.
Erice Guides Incredible Performances Into a Sublime Ending
Close Your Eyes has no aha or gotcha moments. Erice surprises with an ending that hits like an emotional freight train without a drop of salacious or graphic material. Miguel isn't Sherlock Holmes uncovering a clue that somehow binds everything magically together. Erice's script drips with poignant realism from start to finish, but does have a poetic thread between the fictional, incomplete The Farewell Gaze and what transpires during the climax. We do learn Julio's fate, but it's far from what was expected. Life's biggest questions often have the most straightforward answers.
Close Your Eyes' slow-burn methodology should be studied as part of every film school's curriculum. There are no quick edits, limited tracking shots, and skewed angles. The majority of the film is viewed with a single camera master shot that focuses entirely on the central characters in frame. There's nothing in the background that draws your attention away. Erice wants eyeballs on his actors as they react to the dialogue and each other. Lighting, like flames flickering shadows on faces, is used to accentuate a dramatic mood instead of dictating it. The narrative naturally progresses through the performances.
Close Your Eyes is not a sophisticated endeavor for highbrow intellectuals. Its genius is born from simplicity. A great script, acting, and direction, properly executed, equals success. But audiences have to give the film time to develop. This isn't quick fix entertainment meant for the vapid TikTok era. Erice wins the race by being the tortoise.
Close Your Eyes,originally titled Cerrar Los Ojos, has Spanish dialogue with English subtitles. It is a production of La Mirada del Adiós AIE, Tandem Films, and Nautilus Films, et al. Close Your Eyes is currently in limited theatrical release from Film Movement. It comes to digital platforms on Dec. 3. Find theaters and showtimes here.
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