Cell 211 is a
Spanish thriller about a young man in an impossible situation. Though unpredictable, it’s also a movie
that makes sense. Nothing happens
without a reason, decisions flow from prior decisions, and characters behave
consistently with their backgrounds and circumstances. It’s a tense film, one that kept me
engaged and trying to outthink it throughout its running time. I enjoyed the heck out of it.
Here’s the story: Juan is a young man with a family who is
on a tour of a local prison prior to his first day of work there as a
guard. Unexpectedly, he finds
himself in the middle of a riot and passes himself off as a new inmate, one
assigned to Cell 211. What follows
is an hour and a half of Juan trying to survive, prison authorities trying to
find a way to both get him out and end the riot, and the prisoners’ leader
weighing how much he can trust the new guy while negotiating an improvement in
prison conditions.
The leader is a vicious killer, but he’s smart and
adaptable. Thus, the tension: how
long can Juan keep him fooled? How
far is he willing to go to maintain his act? What’s going to happen next?
Tension mounts without straining our credulity and without
resorting to deux ex machinas. The film has a careful eye for group
dynamics on both sides of the bars.
By the end, we’re no longer entirely sure what anyone stands for, and
the lines between good and bad have been blurred without resort to treacle or
silliness. And we bite our nails,
then bite some more. Cell 211 isn’t going to change your
life. It isn’t going to move you
in the manner of a Kinyarwanda. But it will grip you and entertain you
and leave you shaken. I'll take that any time.