''The Motive'' (original title: ''El autor'', "The author") is a 2017 Spanish drama film directed by

Manuel Martín Cuenca Manuel Martín Cuenca (born 30 November 1964) is a Spanish film director. He directed more than ten films since 1990. Selected filmography * ''The Weakness of the Bolshevik'' (2003) * '' Hard Times'' (2005) * ''Cannibal Cannibalism is t ...

. The film premiered at the

2017 Toronto International Film Festival The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 7 to 17 September 2017. There were fourteen programmes, with the Vanguard and City to City programmes both being retired from previous years, with the total number of films down b ...

Plot

Álvaro separates from his wife Amanda, an elated best-seller writer, and motivated by her success, makes up his mind to write a great novel. Problem is, he lacks talent and imagination. He figures out that great fiction is drawn from reality, and he begins to manipulate his neighbors and to get involved in their lives in order to find inspiration for his writing.

Cast

* Javier Gutiérrez as Álvaro * María León as Amanda *

Adelfa Calvo Adelfa Calvo Soto (born 5 April 1962) is a Spanish actress. Biography Born on 5 April 1962 in Melilla, Adelfa Calvo Soto moved when she was barely months old to Málaga, where she was largely raised, together with Seville. She is the daugh ...

as Portera (caretaker) * Adriana Paz as Irene *

Tenoch Huerta José Tenoch Huerta Mejía (; born 29 January 1981) is a Mexican actor. He has appeared in a number of movies in Latin America and Spain, starring in both feature films, short films, and '' Narcos: Mexico'', credited as Tenoch Huerta. He is fe ...

as Enrique *Rafael Téllez as Sr. Montero * Antonio de la Torre as Juan *Domi del Postigo as Presentador (presenter) *José Carlos Carmona as Jesús *Alberto González as Don Alfonso

Reception

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 63%, based on 19 reviews, and an average rating of 6.94/10.

Awards

Premios Goya The Goya Awards ( es, Premios Goya) are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain. The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sci ...

Curiosity

Some of the "penguins scene" from

Werner Herzog Werner Herzog (; born 5 September 1942) is a German film director, screenwriter, author, actor, and opera director, regarded as a pioneer of New German Cinema. His films often feature ambitious protagonists with impossible dreams, people with un ...

's ''

Encounters at the End of the World ''Encounters at the End of the World'' is a 2007 American documentary film by Werner Herzog about Antarctica and the people who choose to spend time there. It was released in North America on June 11, 2008, and distributed by ThinkFilm. At the 81 ...

'' is featured in the first scene.

References

External links

* 2017 films 2017 drama films Spanish drama films Films about writers Spanish-language Netflix original films 2010s Spanish-language films 2010s Spanish films Mexican drama films 2010s Mexican films {{2010s-drama-film-stub