‘La Ira de Dios,’ known in English as ‘The Wrath of God,’ is a piece of South American cinema directed by Sebastián Schindel that is billed as a thriller. It found its way onto Netflix to stream to a wider audience. Warning there are some spoilers in this review.

Kloster (Diego Peretti) is a popular author whose latest novel is an instant bestseller. As he does a writing tour, his home city is plagued by mysterious fires. Local reporter Esteban Ray (Juan Minujín), a former novelist who mocked Kloster a decade ago, is contacted by his former assistant Luciana (Macarena Achaga). She reveals that while she was working for him, she also worked for Kloster, but accused him of sexual harassment after he tried to kiss her. Since then, her family members have died at various times over the last decade and she believes Kloster is behind it. She begs for help, wanting to protect her sister Mercedes (Mónica Antonópulos). With the strange coincidences, Esteban confronts Kloster, but the author reveals a dark secret that seems to indicate Luciana may be facing some karma.

Okay, so, the acting is decent. No one had a stand-out performance, but no one was terrible either. Everyone gave their best with what they had to work with and, geeze, that was not a lot.

The best way to describe this movie is smug. I know that sounds funny, but for a thriller, it tries to play the “deep insight” card at the most inappropriate times which ruins the “thrills.” For instance, you find out Kloster’s wife killed their daughter and herself after discovering Luciana’s accusations. They revealed this WAY too early on and it took a lot of suspense out of the film but allowed the characters to have a long, boring introspection on guilty and justice.

Also, the film tries to play both sides of the coin. Did Kloster get what he deserved for trying to kiss Luciana? BUT WAIT… Luciana overreacted and ended a man’s family, so “justice” is taking her family away as a result. Which is it? The film plays both sides of the fence and thus makes a mess of things when it could have been a decent thriller. Even the climax makes you cringe and roll your eyes as the characters have ANOTHER exposition dump about fate. It was redundant and worthy of a bored yawn.

There is also the issue with the editing. The movie would flashback to different points in Luciana’s life but they came at very weird points in the plot and twice, I did not even realize it was a flashback.

Bottom line, The Wrath of God is a boring thriller that is smug with its audience about “justice” instead of actually providing the suspense needed for fun.

PARENTAL CONCERNS: Violence, Disturbing images

FAVORITE QUOTE: You know how to end it.

Check out the trailer below:

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