Today I’m going to discuss a movie called Cartagena. In search of work, Leo, a desperate alcoholic, arrives at the home of a paralyzed woman for a job interview, thanks to his friend Rodrigo’s invitation. Lucia, the nurse and friend of the homeowner, greets Leo at the door. Leo enters Muriel’s room, where she explains that the previous girls who took on this job usually ran away within a week. However, Muriel is now seeking someone more persistent. Muriel learns that Leo lacks useful skills, except for cooking, which he learned in the Army.
Muriel, curious about why she should hire Leo, questions him. Leo simply states that he really needs the job. Muriel then asks Leo to set up a special table with a book and insert a wand into her teeth. Leo, despite his initial hesitation, enters the room after consuming a bottle of alcohol he found in the kitchen. Muriel assigns him the task of cooking dinner before 8 PM. In the kitchen, Lucia reveals that around 40 girls have already run away from Muriel before Leo. She also informs him that there will be a percussion at three o’clock in the night, and she will wake him up for it.
Lucia shows Leo how to place a pot under Muriel and induce urination through percussion. She expects him to do it himself the next time. In the morning, Leo brings breakfast to Muriel and pretends to go out for sugar. In reality, he sneaks into the bathroom to take a sip of alcohol intended for disinfection. Muriel asks him to open the window and clean up, reminding him that the next percussion will be at 10 AM sharp. At 10 AM, Leo enters the bedroom to complete the procedure.
Leo meets Lucia and asks what would happen if he ran away. She calmly replies that in that case, Muriel wouldn’t have eaten or had her bed cleaned. She mentions that this has happened before. Lucia offers Leo a drink, but he refuses and attempts to leave. However, Muriel asks him to help hang out the laundry. Lucia tells Leo the story of Muriel’s accident three years ago involving her fiancé and his driver. The driver died instantly, and the groom, who was a French consul, eventually left the country. Muriel was left almost alone, with only occasional visits from her father.
Leo leaves and gets drunk. The next morning, when he returns to work, he finds out that Lucia won the argument with Muriel, as she had bet on him returning. Leo goes to the market to buy groceries and is almost robbed by a local dark-skinned girl. In response, Leo grabs her by the throat but lets her go when he feels a knife against him. At home, Leo hears Muriel singing French songs together with a radio. Leo notices Lucia injecting something into Muriel’s vein near the bath. During dinner, Leo serves cooked fish, but Muriel starts screaming, refusing to eat fish due to the fear of choking on a small bone. Leo assures her that he removed all the bones, but Muriel remains adamant. Leo suggests that she needs to learn to trust someone and reluctantly, Muriel takes the first spoonful and eventually enjoys the meal.
Later, Lucia tells Leo that Muriel never leaves the house because she doesn’t want anyone to put her in a wheelchair and she’s afraid of steps and the sun. In the evening, Leo drinks alcohol again and arrives late for work the next day. Muriel warns him that it should be the first and last time. Lucia gives Leo an envelope with his salary, mentioning that he will receive it weekly. Leo suggests they work in shifts and leaves for the night. On his way, Leo buys new sneakers and goes to the gym with his old friend Rodrigo. Rodrigo introduces Leo to his pupils as a European boxing champion known as “Untouchable” for his speed. Leo tries to work out after a long break.
Back at work, Lucia flirtatiously invites Leo to paint his portrait, and Muriel asks him to choose any book and read it aloud to her. Muriel doesn’t mind if it becomes part of his work. Leo watches a boxing match, but Muriel expresses her disapproval of the sport. She sends Leo to get tea, which he later enjoys while watching Leo’s smiling face in his spare time.
Leo visits Jim and Rodrigo invites him to try becoming a trainer. They introduce Leo to two girls, Miranda and Lena, and ask him to prepare them for a fight in Cartagena. Leo recognizes Lena as the same thief from the market. He offers her a sparring session, hinting that their encounter at the market isn’t finished. Reluctantly, Lena agrees, but in the first second, she receives a strong blow to the face from her partner. Leo states that they are now even.
The next day, Leo invites Muriel to go out, to which she reluctantly agrees. On the street, a man invites Muriel to play a game of blindfolded scent guessing with essential oils. The following day, Leo tells Rodrigo that he agrees to his proposal on the condition that he trains Lena while Rodrigo trains Miranda. They bet five thousand dollars on their respective fighters, and if Lena wins, Leo will receive two and a half thousand dollars that Rodrigo owes him for a long time.
One morning, after reading books, Muriel asks Leo to take her for a walk. When they pass a bookseller, she lets Leo go for a walk for half an hour. On their way back, Muriel expresses her love for the sea and her dream of swimming in it. Leo admits that he only enjoys looking at the sea since he cannot swim. Muriel asks if Leo has a girlfriend, and Lucia tries to find out what Leo does in his free time. The woman replies that he probably drinks like all men.
Leo waits for Lena near her father’s house and tries to persuade her to prepare for the championship. He insists that she can win and stop selling herself out of poverty. Lena shares that her life has been predetermined after being raped at the age of 11. However, when Leo promises her two and a half thousand dollars for winning, she agrees to train.
Leo explains to Lena what to pay attention to in Miranda’s movements, but realizing that Lena lacks strength, he allows her to take a break and eat. After dinner, Lena goes to dance and behaves recklessly, eventually getting into a fight with an unfamiliar blonde woman. Leo intervenes, but they are soon outnumbered by three friends of the blonde. They beat Leo, who asks Lena to go to Lucia the next morning and tell her that he will be gone for a couple of days. Lena complies with his request.
Muriel thinks that Leo won’t return and feels very sad. However, a couple of days later, Leo shows up at her doorstep with tears in his eyes. An angry Muriel fires her assistant and allows Lena to stay. From the next day, Leo actively trains Lena. One day, Muriel notices that Lucia can hardly stand on her feet and asks her friend to inject her with a double dose of the drug to end it all. Lucia refuses, saying that she loves her friend.
Meanwhile, Lena tries to seduce Leo, but he refuses and goes outside, where he gets drunk again. The next morning, Muriel finds Leo next to her in bed. He wakes up and asks her to take him back, promising that he has almost stopped drinking and it won’t happen again. Muriel tries to drive him away by calling him a drunk, but Leo sits on her bed and says that he knows she missed him. In response, Muriel begins to cry and admits that it’s hard for her without him. She asks Leo to cook her breakfast in the kitchen.
Lucia angrily confronts Leo, saying that Muriel wanted to commit suicide because of him. On their walk, Leo quotes a letter his wife once left him, stating that they had been waiting for six years for her to become pregnant. Now, she has been waiting for three days for her husband to return from another party to inform him that they will have a son, whom Leo dreams of making a famous boxer. Muriel interrupts Leo, saying she doesn’t want to know the ending. She asks him to lie with her on the grass.
A few days later, Lucia informs Leo that he won’t be able to go to work for the next two days due to the fight he has been training for all along. The day of the fight arrives, and Lena, with Leo’s support, knocks out Miranda. In the morning, Lena finds a farewell note from her husband on her bed, informing her that Rodrigo will give her the winnings. Lena asks Rodrigo for a car and takes Muriel to the sea to fulfill her old dream.
In a happy moment, Leo, wearing a shirt the color of the sun, takes his beloved woman in his arms and enters the oncoming waves. He fulfills Muriel’s dream, even though he admits he never knew how to swim. The movie ends with a heartfelt scene.
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