Intruso (The Intruder)

REVIEW
Reuniting Lovers director Aranda with Abril, his sexy leading lady from that film, Intruso is yet another melodramatic tale involving an overheated love triangle. When Luisa (Abril) discovers her childhood friend and long-lost first husband Angel (Arias) roaming the streets one day, she takes him home to her family. Angel fascinates Luisa's two children, but her husband Ramiro (Valero) -- who also knew him years ago -- is less thrilled with the intruder's presence in their fragile household. The story, which shifts its focus between Luisa's forbidden desire, Ramiro's increasing jealousy, and Angel's obsessive love, is unnecessarily complicated with some metaphysical nonsense about the characters' past and present as well as Angel's impending death. Aranda's film is curiously detached in its examination of these thwarted characters that watching them becomes a frustrating experience. Despite some steamy love scenes, Intruso's lack of dramatic tension will leave most viewers cold. (Spanish with English subtitles)