Mararía

During the onset of the Spanish Civil War, bookish country doctor Fermín (Carmelo Gómez) arrives on the Spanish island of Lanzarote and quickly takes a fancy to local beauty Mararía (Goya Toledo). At first Mararía returns his furtive glances, but when Fermín's propriety and Mararía's young age conspire to keep the good doctor at ogle's distance, she soon tires of the game. Enter stage right a Royal Geographic Society surveyor by the name of Bertrand (Iain Glen), who discovers that under the island's seemingly unexceptional landscape lurks an extraordinary volcanic heat. (Get it?). Before long the British bounder has swept Mararía off her feet (literally), and, par for the course, the whole thing ends rather badly. This three Goya-winning "tragic tale of the destructive power of love and obsession" offers up a rather lopsided love triangle, with Fermín's staid dutifulness to Mararía playing oddly against her passionate couplings with Bertrand, making the film's turning point as unconvincing as it is unexpected. Nevertheless, this dark and emotionally stormy drama does hold one's interest, mainly for the haunting screen presence of Toledo, who, in her lead debut, proves herself an actress to watch…gladly. Recommended. (S. C. Sickles)