|
| Amazon MGM Studios |
If you’re in the mood for a psychological thriller you might have missed, take a look at “The Diary” (“El Diario”), a 2024 film on Prime Video. Irene Azuela stars as Olga, a recently divorced mom trying to rebuild her life. She and her young daughter, Vera, are settling into a new home while Olga and her ex work out how to co-parent through a difficult transition.
As if Olga didn’t have enough going on, she finds a chest in the attic with a diary inside. Its author appears to be a serial killer. (No tortured poet here.)
What starts as a distraction soon becomes an obsession. The more Olga reads, the more she wants to know whether the diary is real and who wrote it. She enlists Vera’s therapist, Carlos (Mauricio Ochmann), and the two find themselves in a twisting mystery that puts the people around them in danger.
Nature or nurture? Fate or chance? Can a single moment change the course of someone’s life? “The Diary” gets a surprising amount of mileage out of a simple setup. At 82 minutes, it gives those questions room to breathe without letting the suspense go slack.
I wouldn’t let the lukewarm IMDb rating put you off. If you enjoyed the original “Frequency”, there’s a similar pleasure in watching “The Diary” puzzle over whether the future can be changed. As a thriller enthusiast, I’m always happy to find one that keeps me guessing and gives me something to think about afterward.
If you follow true crime, some of the questions Olga wrestles with may sound familiar. How much can we learn from a person’s past, and when do we start reading inevitability into events we can only make sense of in hindsight? They’re the kinds of questions that come up in coverage of high-profile murder cases, long after the basic facts of a case are known.
One of the film’s quieter surprises is how well Olga gets along with her ex’s new girlfriend. There’s a real warmth between them, and it makes the family feel lived-in. It’s a small detail, but it gives the thriller some of its emotional weight.
Co-directors Emma Bertrán and Alba Gil use the film’s more fantastical turns to get at a grounded question. If we can recognize the conditions that put someone on a dangerous path, what can we do before it’s too late? The film leaves room for you to sit with that question. Take note. The ending may catch you off guard, but it’s the questions it leaves behind that make “The Diary” worth watching.
“The Diary” (“El Diario”) is listed on Prime Video. For more ideas, browse Eclectic Pop’s Prime Video coverage.
Comments
Post a Comment