No matter what you expect from The Goalkeeper (original Spanish title: El portero), you'll probably end up being surprised by the film itself, which is most definitely an odd piece of filmmaking.

In the still-tumultuous years shortly after the Spanish Civil War, an ex-professional soccer player called Forteza (Carmelo Gómez) makes his way north to the coast of Asturias (one of the northern provinces of Spain), where he hopes to continue scraping out a living by trading on his nickname "King of the Penalty," challenging townsfolk to get a goal past him. He's immediately drawn into the lives of the people there, first by unwillingly smuggling an anti-Franco guerrilla fighter through to safety, and then by taking an interest in Manuela (Maribel Verdú), a single mother.

For the first half of this relatively short film (it runs a modest 84 minutes), The Goalkeeper feels like the start of an interesting character-based drama. The characters are sympathetic, and there's certainly a hook to see how things will play out in terms of their relationships. As we move into the latter half of the movie, though, it becomes less clear where the film is really heading, and the last quarter or so of the film is enough to leave viewers thoroughly puzzled.

Toward the end of the film, the plot comes together to focus on a goal-shooting contest between representatives of the town and the military garrison, with Forteza obviously at the center as the man they're all trying to beat. So far, so good... where The Goalkeeper takes a peculiar turn is in its handling of this event. The last part of the film basically turns surreal, with the competition evidently taking on some kind of symbolic or allegorical significance. I've puzzled over it, but I honestly have no idea what the subtext is supposed to be. It's likely that there's some sort of message here about rebellion against authority, or the conflict between civil and military rule, but it certainly comes out far from clearly. What we're left with is a muddled and baffling sequence of events that are supposed to be meaningful, but frankly are just plain strange.

One of the most interesting things about The Goalkeeper (and really the only thing that remains consistent throughout the movie) is that it's filmed entirely on location in Asturias, so we get to see a lot of gorgeous landscapes of forested hills, rocky headlands, and small beaches.

The DVD

Video

The Goalkeeper is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is anamorphically enhanced. I was very pleased with the image quality here; the film is really being presented with its best foot forward. The print is completely clean, with no noise or flaws, and I didn't see any edge enhancement, either. The overall color palette is fairly low-key, which I think is an artistic choice, as everything does look nicely warm and natural. The film has English subtitles which, fortunately, are optional.

Audio

The Spanish Dolby 5.1 soundtrack does a quite satisfactory job of presenting the film, which is mainly dialogue-based and doesn't put much of a strain on the surround channels. The track is clean and clear, and sounds natural. A Spanish Dolby 2.0 track is also included. The English subtitles are optional.

Extras

The main special feature is a 23-minute making-of featurette, which is reasonably interesting. I'm pleased to note that it's in its original Spanish, with optional English subtitles. Trailers for The Goalkeeper, The Green March, Girl of Your Dreams, Shanghai Spell, and Beyond Desire are also included.

Final thoughts

The Goalkeeper is a bit of a puzzle of a film; it starts out well, offering solid actors in a small-scale story of relationships and conflict in post-Civil War Spain, but at the end it shifts to a different mode that feels like it's trying to be deeply (but opaquely and unsuccessfully) symbolic. It has a nice transfer at least, so it's probably worth a rental if you're so inclined.