The Courier [El Correo] *** (2024, Arón Piper, María Pedraza, Luis Tosar, Stefan Weinert, Alberto Jo Lee, Manuel Gancedo, José Manuel Poga) – Classic Movie Review 13,013

The enjoyable 2024 film The Courier [El Correo] is a super-slick real-life Spanish crime thriller starring Arón Piper as a young valet/ hustler who seizes his get-rich-quick chance to join a cartel’s money-laundering scheme.

Director Daniel Calparsoro’s enjoyable 2024 film The Courier [El Correo] is a super-slick, arguably maybe too super-slick, real-life Spanish crime thriller, fictionalised with names changed, based on a national fraud scandal connected with construction. A huge corruption scandal followed the real estate explosion after the arrival of the euro in Spain.

Arón Piper stars as Iván, a humble young valet/ hustler from Vallecas, who seizes his chance to join an international cartel dedicated to money laundering. He becomes an international money-moving courier, rising through the ranks of the cartel and making hay while the sun shines in a mesmerising world of easy money, smart hotels, fast cars and loose women. The story starts around 2002 against the backdrop of the beginning of the euro.

The Courier is entertaining, a little bit edgy, a little bit real, but mostly it keeps glitzy and motoring along on its shiny surface. Arón Piper is credible with his air of young ambitious swagger and his sexy low-life charm. Though there is a wealth of other characters, the film is all about him. He needs to be good, needs to be attractive, and he is. Also effective are María Pedraza as the alluring Leticia, Luis Tosar as the oily villainous Escámez, Laura Sépul as Anne Marie, and Nourdin Batan as Yannick, the tough boy Iván recruits as his partner.

The film is, like its characters, snazzy but hardly at all likeable. It really keeps moving along, so there’s not time to get bored or lose interest. There’s plenty of interest all the way through. Sometimes you are not sure where to look.

Real-life thrillers are hard to do, as their stories invariably run messily and over a period of years, without the tidy ends of fiction, but this one uses its slick style to propel the story along, and locate the times and places efficiently, so we’re clear at all times, with a voice-over by Arón Piper as Ivan to guide us through the story. The voice-over is maybe slightly clumsy and over-used, but very useful, Locations include Madrid, Brussels, Marbella, Geneva, and Hong Kong, so we’re globetrotting, and we need guidance.

It’s a fairly complex story, so its clarity is paramount to understanding, enlightenment and enjoyment, especially for those who haven’t lived in Spain through this era. It’s a bit of an eye=opener into another time and another place, not far off or far away, but it seems like it’s light years and another planet, happily so.

Director Daniel Calparsoro keeps his dynamic, high-energy film extremely fast moving, and it is quite exhausting. It’s a hard ride. It looks flashily great (cinematography by Tommie Ferreras) and the score by Carlos Jean is really flashy too.

It was released in Spain by Universal Pictures on 19 January 2024.

Genre: Thriller, Crime, Drama

Cast: Arón Piper, María Pedraza, Luis Tosar, Stefan Weinert, Alberto Jo Lee, Manuel Gancedo, and José Manuel Poga,

Duration: 102 minutes.

Country: Spain, Belgium, France.

Production: Vaca Films, Panache Productions, La Compagnie Cinématographique, Playtime, Canal+, Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales, Movistar+, RTVE, RTVE, Playtime Production, La Compagnie Cinématographique Européenne, Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales, and Panache Productions.

The cast are Arón Piper as Iván, María Pedraza as Leticia, Luis Tosar as Escámez, Laura Sépul as Anne Marie, Nourdin Batan as Yannick, José Manuel Poga as Javier Ocaña, Luis Zahera as police comisario Roig, Hervé Falciani as himself, Stefan Weinert, Alberto Jo Lee, and Manuel Gancedo.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,013

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