The premise of ‘Beaten’ is pretty simple and evergreen: a hitman named Bruise is contracted to murder a man, Redd, who is supposed to have leaked some information about the mayor. In a mix-up, other hitmen hired by the colleagues of the mayor kill Bruise’s fiancée, Cindy, who happened to be Redd’s sister. The whole situation devastate both of the men, and whilst they’re at the cemetery, mourning Cindy, they plot to get back at the people who put the whole plan together. As in superhero movies, the two join forces and form a super team designed to avenge their grief; with this new team roaming the streets, no one is safe, and the bad people can feel it coming.
The story is complex and intriguing, and Arturo Portillo managed to spare no details so as the viewer can follow it with great ease. The cast is impressive, delivering good performances in such a difficult plot.
Two particular scenes represent pure emotion and are from our perspective the main focal points of this feature film: the first one is from the cemetery where Bruise and Redd talk to each other, sharing their side of the story. In this part they become vulnerable in front of the other, proving they are sincere in their act of taking revenge on Cindy’s death since this is what they both want. The second scene is the one from the warehouse where the three-armed men hold them at gunpoint, wanting to kill them and at the same time retrieving the leaked information that was so badly needed from the beginning. The level of trust goes off the roof – they have plotted a way to be caught, only to get all the bad men in the same place. Once they gather, the mayhem starts, and one by one, they fall under the rage of the broken-hearted ones.
More than anything, this feature film tells us a story about trust – when the two men meet, with one of them supposed to kill the other, we learn that an exterior conflict brings them together to fight for the same cause. The predictable happy-ending was more than welcome here, as the story called for a good moral lift towards the end. Arturo Portillo took the winning scheme and applied it here, making ‘Beaten’ a feature film that is not one hundred percent innovative, but sure is one hundred percent desirable for all the fans of this genre.
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