TIFF 09: 25 CARAT (25 KILATES) Review

If American crime films are guilty of one fatal flaw it is that the huge majority of them not only glamorize the world that they are set it but focus only on the big fish while doing so. And as entertaining as those big films can be, let's be honest: There's not a soul involved that any one of us can really identify or empathize with and so, when the final credits roll, the films quickly fade away. Not so with Patxi Amezcua's 25 Carat, a film that twists and winds its way through the lives of minor criminals in Barcelona's underworld. There is the boxer turned debt collector, the bump-and-grab petty thief, the gambling addicted fence, the dirty cop looking to unload goods lifted from busts. Far from being master criminals, these are - for the most part - every day people simply trying to scrape by and, as a result, the film packs an emotional punch far greater than most.

Kay is trapped in a dead end life and she knows it. She lives in a dismal flat with her father - a petty fence with a king sized gambling addiction - in whose petty scams she must always play a part if only to keep dad from prison or worse. Her own preferred means of income? Staging car accidents to rob the other party - a simple scam that tends to serve her well but when it fails, it fails bad. Which is precisely what has happened moments before she happens to meet Abel, a total stranger who simply catches a look in Kay's eye and comes to her aid despite knowing perfectly well that she was in the wrong.

Abel? For his part, he's a washed out boxer turned debt collector for a petty gangster who pays Abel a share of what he collects. It's not much but it's enough to let Abel provide at least some sort of life for his son. But even so, he knows this life cannot last and it was perhaps the recognition of that same desperate need to move on that draws Abel to Kay, the two striking up an impetuous relationship while hatching plans to move on.

But leaving the life is never as simple as leaving it and before they can get free and clear Abel put on his head by a spurned lover while Kay must rescue her father from a certain death at the hands of a double crossed client who also happens to be a cop. Loves not easy when you're on the grift.

Beautifully shot in a raw, handheld style that gives energy to spare, Amezcua's film attempts the difficult task of being true to the rules of its chosen genre while also adding something entirely different to the mix and he succeeds incredibly well. The criminal life that he depicts here is raw and violent and one hundred percent believable, the characters who inhabit it likewise. And yet, that does not stop them from being sympathetic and likable. They do bad things, yes, but only because they see no other options for themselves. These are the citizens of the fringe, people who society has shoved to the side, and if they are to have any hope of a 'legitimate' future they will only arrive at it by illicit means.

Amezcua is blessed with a very strong cast, every last player fitting their roles and situations perfectly. Francesc Garrido straddles the line between hard-ass debt collector - capable of doing whatever necessary to do the job - and caring father nursing a sort of emotional fragility that makes him appealing to Kay beautifully. In many ways this film lives and dies with the role of Abel and Garrido carries the film confidently from start to finish. Aida Folch is a good match for Garrido as Kay and the rest of the cast is similarly strong. The script is sharp, the direction strong. 25 Carat is one of the surprising little gems of the year, a little film that deserves a lot of big praise.