Parents' Guide to En Brazos de un Asesino (Killing Sarai)

This movie is kind of a bait and switch: It starts out like an action thriller and then takes a hard turn into romance, but it doesn't succeed at either. Director Matías Moltrasio initially leads viewers to believe that Victor, an assassin with a heart of gold and his own code of ethics, will risk everything to save Sarai from Javier so that he can use her as leverage to regain custody of his current employer's lost daughter, also trapped by Javier. But once the criminals have been taken care of and Sarai is truly free, that plot point goes out the window, and the film turns into a romance worthy of a Harlequin novel.

To be fair, the seeds of romance were (unsuccessfully) planted in En Brazos de un Asesino (aka In the Arms of an Assassin or, as it was titled in the United States, Killing Sarai) through Sarai's longing looks at Victor, even though he at first keeps her tied up or otherwise physically uncomfortable. But that's only part of why their romance is difficult to accept. The film also buys into clichés by portraying Victor as an otherwise emotionally unavailable, violent man who just needs to find the right woman to unlock his heart. He's dangerous, but he's not so dangerous that he doesn't know where the line between "sexually exciting" and "sexually harmful" is. Ultimately, he's the kind of character who can exist only in the romance genre as a voyeuristic fantasy. Speaking of voyeurism, the film gives viewers more than enough views of Sanz' body, with the camera objectifying her chest and other body parts. Levy's body gets some of that same treatment, too, but it pales in comparison to how often Sanz is shown nude or partially nude. Overall, it feels like En Brazos de un Asesino wants to be a film that appeals to both men and women -- but, ultimately, it might not appeal to either.