Burning Body Review Netflix Series: An Addictive True Crime with A Hypnotic Úrsula Corberó as Rosa Peral (El cuerpo en llamas)
Cast: Úrsula Corberó, Quim Gutiérrez, Eva Llorach, Raúl Prieto, José Manuel Poga
Director: Jorge Torregross
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Burning Body (El cuerpo en llamas original title) is the new Spanish Netflix series that aims to take the entire world by storm. Starring Úrsula Corberó, Quim Gutiérrez, José Manuel Poga, and Isak Férriz, it presents the case called Crime of the Urban Police through which Rosa Peral and her lover murdered Pedro Rodríguez, charring his body in a car near a swamp. Surely you have already seen the 8 episodes that are part of the first season, but if you have been left wanting more. It is not surprising that a miniseries inspired by a true crime story on Netflix has already been titled, Burning Body, which suggests the meaning of the story that gives life to its 8 episodes.
Fire is what kills one of the protagonists, but it is also the passion, devastating and explosive, that regulates the lives of two diabolical lovers. In the era of success of a genre such as true crime, which through podcasts, documentaries, and television series is enthralling audiences all over the world. Inspired by the so-called Guardia Urbana crime, Burning Body, written by Laura Sarmiento and directed by Jorge Torregrossa, is indebted to the great classic Hollywood noirs. A genre that has made the fortunes of American cinema and which in this case has declined with a less sophisticated approach. Overall, the series manages to convey the toxicity of every single pawn on the field. Through a story that, despite some lapses in style, can be followed with interest. We’ll see it in our review of Burning Body.
Burning Body Review: The Story Plot
May 2017. The remains of a man’s body appear in the trunk of a burned-out car in the Foix reservoir. This is Pedro Rodríguez, a police officer whom, by chance or carelessness, they have managed to identify. He is the victim of what will be known as the Crime of the Guardia Urbana, which will be narrated through the prism of fiction in The Body Burning Body, the miniseries that has just premiered on Netflix.
When a policeman is murdered and set Burning Body, all eyes are on his girlfriend and her lover. From a true story. The discovery of the charred remains of the policeman Pedro (José Manuel Poga), near the Foix basin, in Barcelona, triggers an investigative investigation which initially focuses on the possible links between the man and some dangerous drug dealers. However, the issue is much more complex than it might seem. The man’s partner, Rosa (Úrsula Corberó), is involved in the crime in various capacities. And her ex-boyfriend Alber (Quim Gutiérrez), another police officer. Between unconfessed secrets, love that never completely subsided, and unexpected twists, Pedro’s murder will reveal a disconcerting truth.
Burning Body Review and Analysis
The Spanish production does not beat around the bush and soon places us in the heart of the case: a police officer has been murdered, and the spark of curiosity is lit in all of us who are in front of the screen. Whether we know the real case or not, we want to know what will happen next. Pulling the thread, we end up falling into a dangerous vortex and soon reach Rosa Peral (Úrsula Corberó), the center of this solar system of which she is victim and executioner at the same time – although she leans more towards the second of her two facets, the that he most insists on denying. And although it seems that there are more people around her, in reality, she only has eyes for Albert López (Quim Gutiérrez), her patrol partner, and the great love of her life. Or at least until the day they both have to answer before a judge and decide to turn their backs on him.
Rosa’s life is not easy, and Burning Body does well to detail what the context that surrounds her is like. She has been the victim of a revenge porn case, she insists on complicating her divorce and now one more problem is added to the list: Pedro Rodríguez (José Manuel Poga), who, far from being perfect, falls in love with her, the wrong person. From the first moment, Rosa and Albert know that they have the possibility of leading a simpler life with the person they love, but as Úrsula Corberó herself said, they are still “two very proud people” and when it happens A clash of egos of this nature, the result can only be the worst imaginable. It does not condition the story to know that both of them plan Pedro’s murder, premeditated and knowing perfectly well what steps they must follow to do it without leaving a trace. Furthermore, it is inspired by a true story.
Burning Body also takes certain artistic licenses when narrating the events, dividing the chronological line and altering the order of the pieces, and using this decision – and knowing the outcome from the beginning -, to build the complexity contained in its protagonists. This decision is correct and adds dynamism to a plot of which we already know the ending because, in this story, the final result is not as important as the chained causes that end up leading to it. This is due to the tandem formed by the script by Laura Sarmiento and the direction by Jorge Torregrossa (Fariña, Intimidad), always capable of elevating the material that passes through their hands. It is also true that these freedoms can bring certain risks and that, for example, appealing to the viewer directly as the characters do to recreate the exchange of text messages can be uncomfortable for some, disconcerting, or even lead to partial disconnection from what they are seeing. it’s happening.
However, they are still calls for attention that connect the public with what is happening and that also implicate them in what happened, forcing them to ask themselves many questions, draw conclusions, and look for a logical explanation for this network of lies, violence and toxicity that led to an actual murder. Even so, any flaws that may be found are made up for by the magnificent construction of the characters and the interpretation of the cast. Rosa Peral is presented as a complex woman, with many different faces and as a person whom everyone judges, partly because of the atrocity she commits, but also because she is a woman who wants to satisfy her desires.
And her character is, as a consequence, someone with many edges and who contains a shocking duality that a superb Úrsula Corberó has managed to carry, knowing that she is facing something that could undermine any professional in her profession, she comes out with flying colors with an interpretation of the character that could well be seen as a reincarnation of the real person. Likewise, and if that were not enough, at his side he has Quim Gutiérrez as Albert López, a man inflated with self-sufficiency, narcissism, and a fragile masculinity that leads him to put aside his reasoning. He is the ideal companion for Rosa, and both become each other’s support, the only person with whom they can let themselves go, not only in the carnal and lust realm but also when it comes to crossing the limits of legality. Because they know that the uniform and the weapon, they wear give them the impunity they need to use their power as they want since they believe that there is no one above them.
He, she, the other. How many times in recent years have we witnessed news events with prurient implications? Perfect crimes, committed in the name of passion (but passion and death are far from similar), showed the most violent side of human beings. Here, Burning Body multiplies to the nth degree all the sensations, doubts, and reflections, which make us spectators of passionate black reportage. It catapults us into a gigantic episode of one of those programs in which the lives of killers and victims are vivisected, making every aspect spectacular. And unfortunately, we always lose sight of the human element, which is what matters most.
This is why watching Burning Body leaves us rather perplexed. Although the packaging is rich and accurate and despite some interesting narrative devices (for example, having the messages sent on the cell phone interpreted by the protagonists shot in extreme close-up), this miniseries is a botched container of facts. A cauldron in which hot love, death, delusions, toxic machismo, and violence converge without interruption. Not even the most anticipated twist, although already known, manages to provide the right thrill. This is because, in our opinion, the team of authors remained on the surface, limiting themselves to drawing a story in which the protagonists only seem to be prey to a wild and annihilating feeling. Their deep motivations, however, are not brought to light, but only briefly shown, cloaked in an excessive amount of eroticism. So, is it all worth throwing away? Not exactly.
One interesting thing about Burning Body has been its ability to reflect and make us reflect on a genre like noir, which has given life to the cinema in true masterpieces such as Billy Wilder’s Burning Body. And in fact, it was the first narrative reference we thought of when seeing the Spanish miniseries. And what is the heart of every self-respecting noir? The female protagonist. Vamp, femme fatale, man-eater. Call her what you want, but she is the “bad” woman, the mala mujer of the song that Úrsula Corberó sings together with her daughter, the true protagonist of Burning Body.
Hers is a complex and multifaceted character, ethnographically well recognizable: long dark hair, brazen red lipstick, sensual physique, and ember eyes. In short, there are all the possible repertoires. And yes, if they are not exactly the height of originality, these signs are nevertheless indicative of a story that proceeds in established stages in a sufficiently exciting way. She doesn’t have Barbara Stanwyck’s devilish charm, but Corberó carries the whole story on her own. And she manages to give Rose more delicate nuances, despite her abysmal perversion. Especially when she relates to her daughter Sofia. For the rest, the heroine of Burning Body remains a question mark, a tangle of passion, destructiveness, and mystery. Her zodiac sign? Needless to say, Scorpio.
Burning Body Review: The Last Words
From the beginning, anyone who decides to see Burning Body will find several reasons to stay, whether or not they knew about the Urban Police Crime case before. It is not just a narration of the events, which other documentaries have been able to do before, and rather it investigates in a very entertaining way the big question that everyone will want to answer after knowing the story of Rosa Peral and Albert López: for What did they do if they knew there was another way out?
Burning Body Review Netflix Series: An Addictive True Crime with A Hypnotic Úrsula Corberó as Rosa Peral (El cuerpo en llamas) - Filmyhype
Director: Jorge Torregross
Date Created: 2023-09-08 14:24
3.5
Pros
- You are a true crime fan and you knew the real case on which the series is based.
- Are you looking for a short and entertaining series to marathon.
- You want to see Quim Gutiérrez in a different register and Úrsula Corberó in what will be one of the best roles of her career.
Cons
- You prefer to stick to the narration of facts and true crime through the documentary format.
