Summary
And thus The Paramedic is about a lonely man with a deadly obsession that fails to go further than the limited potential of the plot.
This review of Netflix film The Paramedic contains zero spoilers. The Spanish thriller came out on the platform on September 16, 2020.
The Paramedic works to an extent because the director Carles Torras encouraged the lead character Ángel (played by Mario Casas) to be detestably intense from the first scene. The character did not muster any respect for his partner with his underlying tones and his implied paranoid behaviour. The premise follows Ángel as he faces a new reality in a wheelchair after an unfortunate accident. When the woman that he claims to love leaves him, he develops a deadly obsession and puts in plans for a revenge plot.
The Netflix film spends plenty of time molding their relationship into a neat case study in the first half — his partner Vane is played by Déborah François and she gives a thorough performance ensuring that her mannerisms speak volumes. The odd glance, twitch and her consuming eyes tell a story more than Ángel’s intense ways — it’s a scenario where a character is too afraid to be alone and the partner can smell it — Vane cannot find an excuse to leave.
It’s flagrantly evident why the director wanted to surface Ángel’s sinister traits before he ended up in a wheelchair — he wanted an angle that Ángel did not become bitter and evil due to his new circumstances, but that the growing darkness was inside him all along — whether this will be accepted as part of the plot remains to be seen. The second half of the film explores Ángel’s revenge plot. And that’s where Netflix’s The Paramedic becomes rather average because the mystery between the couple that held the momentum is suddenly lost. The story becomes an angry, strange man finding ways to keep his ex-partner in his life — a plot we’ve seen plenty of times.
And of course, the reason it’s called The Paramedic is that the writers needed to find a reason why he had medical supplies at hand. The film notably shows the character has a knack for stealing at the start.
And thus The Paramedic is about a lonely man with a deadly obsession that fails to go further than the potential of the plot.
