The Red Thread

Abril is twenty three and a flight attendant. Manuel is thirty and makes wine. They meet by chance at an airport and something forms between them at once; then life separates them. Years later they meet again. She is married to Bruno and he has a family with Laura. Daniela Goggi writes and directs. Eugenia Suárez plays Abril and Benjamín Vicuña plays Manuel, with Hugo Silva in the cast. The source is Erika Halvorsen's novel of the same name. The title refers to an East Asian belief: that two people destined for each other are joined by an invisible red thread. The film uses it as a figure. The subject is guilt rather than passion. Neither can bring themselves to break their own relationship, and the narrative carries the cost of that for a long time. It opened on 19 May in Argentina and Uruguay, on 26 May in Chile, on 9 June in Paraguay and on 23 July in Spain. The reviews divided. Some praised the rapport between the leads and the technical quality; others wrote that the treatment of passion, infidelity and guilt was shallow. Who it is for: viewers who like Latin American romantic drama. Who it is not for: the template is familiar, the characters' decisions repeat, and the ending goes where it is expected to.