dot the i
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| dot the i | |
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| Directed by | Matthew Parkhill |
| Produced by | George Duffield Meg Thomson |
| Written by | Matthew Parkhill |
| Starring | Gael García Bernal Natalia Verbeke James D'Arcy Tom Hardy |
| Music by | Javier Navarrete |
| Cinematography | Affonso Beato |
| Editing by | Jon Harris |
| Distributed by | Artisan Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | October 31, 2003 (Spain) |
| Running time | 92 min. |
| Country | England Spain USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
dot the i is a 2003 psychological thriller starring Gael García Bernal, Natalia Verbeke, and James D'Arcy. It was written and directed by Matthew Parkhill.
The story has been remade in Hindi in the Indian film "Naqaab" with a very slight change in plot made to suit Indian customs.
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[edit] Characters
The main characters include:
- Kit Winter (Bernal) - a Brazilian actor living in London, England.
- Carmen Colazzo (Verbeke) - a Spaniard who is engaged to Barnaby, but is attracted to Kit.
- Barnaby F. Caspian (D'Arcy) - an English film director who hires Kit.
[edit] Plot
Carmen, a young Spanish woman who is engaged to be married has her Hen's Night at a local French restaurant. She is invited to participate in a traditional ceremony in which she is allowed to kiss a stranger of her choice before her marriage - symbolizing "kissing her single life goodbye" and bringing luck to the future. The person she chooses is Kit and both enjoy the kiss far more than they had intended. They fall in love, which creates a "love triangle" between Carmen, her fiance Barnaby and Kit.
What initially appears to be a typical urban love story, soon begins to unravel as many unpredictable and dark twists occur. By the end of the film, it becomes apparent that the whole plot was Barnaby's attempt at creating an artistic Snuff film. Unbeknown to Carmen, she had been cast as the lead female character in this love triangle. Barnaby had hired Kit as part of the deception, yet he had also misled him as he had not mentioned that he would take on the role of the fiance of Carmen (Kit had believed both fiance and fiancee would not know about the film). It is clear that Barnaby is relentless as he actually marries Carmen for the sake of the film and later he fakes his own suicide (apparently killing himself because Carmen will never love him like she does Kit) and sends the video tape to his wife. In a state of shock, she returns to Kit, who is also horrified and guilty. He admits to Carmon that he had been paid to seduce her by a man creating a film, but regretted it immensely.
Suddenly Barnaby enters to give Kit his final pay. He comes clean to both the broken Carmen and Kit and then laughs bitterly at the two before leaving.
Several months later, Barnaby's film has become a success. Barnaby claims that, after seeing the results of his work, both Kit and Carmen forgave him for using them. It appears as if Carmen got back together with Barnaby when the film was finished, yet as this movie has already proven, looks can be deceiving...
What Barnaby did not count on in his plan was that Kit and Carmen would actually fall in love and neither would forgive Barnaby for his actions. Together, they devise their own plan to punish the manipulative Barnaby.
[edit] Reaction in the United States
Most American critics did not appreciate the bait and switch approach the film took calling its twist ending "implausible" and "gimmicky."[1] Even Roger Ebert, who was one of the few admirers of Dot the i, said of it "we walk out of the theater with perplexing questions about motives, means, access and techniques."[2] The film got an extremely limited release and only grossed about $300,000 in the United States.[3]
