The Invisible Guest

The Invisible Guest (2017) is a Spanish thriller that happens almost entirely in one room, as a conversation. Adrián is a successful businessman. He was found in a locked hotel room with his lover's body and is on trial for murder. Hours before the hearing an experienced defence lawyer comes to his house and tells him: tell me the truth or I cannot save you. The film is that conversation. He tells it, she points out the contradictions, he tells it again. The same event is staged repeatedly and something changes each time. The clever part is that the audience is misled along with her. Every reconstruction is taken as true while you watch it, and then dismantled. There is a second story: a young man who disappeared, and the parents looking for him. How the two lines join is the whole point. Oriol Paulo wrote and directed it. It did well in Spain but its real success was in China, where it became an unexpectedly large hit and opened a door for Spanish cinema there. It has been remade more than once in India. What is revealed in the last ten minutes requires watching the film again. It runs 106 minutes. Good for: mystery, single location tension, and twist narrative. Less good for: once you know the twist most of its power is gone, and the characters are thin.