Crime Diaries The Celebrity Stylist (Historia de un crimen: Mauricio Leal) is a Colombian crime thriller film which is based on a real-life incident. It is directed by Jacques Toulemonde and has a runtime of about 1 hour and 11 minutes.
The cast of the film includes Juana del Río, Johan Velandia, Walter Luengas, Alejandro Gómez, Myriam de Lourdes, Santana Rosa, Camilo Colmenares, Nelson Camayo, Ernesto Benjumea and others.
The film recounts the events when a well-known hair stylist was discovered dead alongside his mother, a young detective is assigned the task of solving the case within a strict deadline of 20 days. This story is based on actual events that happened in November 2021 and serves as an inspiration for the narrative.
Crime Diaries The Celebrity Stylist Review
The film starts with a famous hairstylist, Mauricio Leal, calling his elder brother to get him some wheat crackers on his way back. The dynamics between the two brothers seem quite off since Mauricio sounds quite hesitant to ask if he can bring him something, and even promises to pay him for such a small thing. Followed by Yhonier/Jhonier making his way to the house but it gets cut to the next day with the bloodied bodies of Mauricio and their mother, Marleny Leal.
A suicide note was found next to the bodies, hinting that Mauricio stabbed his mother and then killed himself – a murder-suicide. The content of the note included – “I love you, forgive me, I can’t go on. I leave everything to my siblings and cousins. All my love, forgive me, mother”. However, most of the people found it odd since he was tagged as the ‘boy genius’ with an A-list clientele. He was about to work with the Miss Universe Pageant and the fashion brand Victoria’s Secret on a project.
Yet his brother painted another picture of his younger brother, who was depressed, high on medications and probably done with his life. The investigations indicated otherwise when they found a broken knife tip in Mauricio’s stomach and external wounds that could only be inflicted by a third person. Despite suspecting people in and around the victims, investigating Detective Soto found herself keeping a close eye on Yhonier and eventually convicting him.
Considering it’s not even a documentary and many things have been dramatised for entertainment purposes, the film is not thrilling at all. They have put up a disclaimer of it only being inspired and not an accurate depiction of real events, yet they couldn’t add elements that would have added more layers and delved into the ‘what-if’ territory. It’s pretty evident that they want to portray Yhonier as the sole culprit, although the case is still ongoing.
For dramatic purposes, they have added a troubled married life element for the investigating detective. But even that is not clear, what they want to signify through that or how is it related to the case. Detective Soto’s behaviour is so irrational at many times that you question if she was personally involved with the victims. The expressions of the actress don’t match up with the character she is playing. Instead of being an objective inspector, she becomes too emotional hearing any story about Mauricio and looks at Yhonier with murderous eyes, even when she is called to the crime scene for the first time.
In the span of 1 hour and 11 minutes, the creators have painted a picture of a brother filled with envy. Not being able to control his emotions one day, he rushed to a tragic conclusion. For someone who was hearing about the case for the first time, the details provided in the film were insufficient and didn’t give a complete account of what could have gone down, the dynamics between the family etc.
If anything, they could have included more fictional elements (taken ideas from surrounding conspiracy theories) and created suspense around finding the killer. Overall, it was a letdown and better to read up news articles than tune in to this film to learn about the case.
Rating: 1.5/5
Crime Diaries The Celebrity Stylist is available for streaming on Netflix.
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