1959, Madrid, a glamour-filled party in the central salon of the Palace Hotel. There begins The Final Problem (available on Netflix), the series that adapts the eponymous novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Directed by Félix Viscarret (Patria, Una vida tan simple), starring Jose Coronado, Gonzalo de Castro, Maribel Verdú, Martiño Rivas or María Valverde is a classic mystery tale in the pure Agatha Christie mold that had to alter much of the original plot.
Basil, played by Jose Coronado, is an actor mistaken in the Sherlock role; people see him as such, and he himself seems to believe he is a true detective, but with little workload, he accepts a strange and unexpected invitation from a producer (Gonzalo de Castro) and a debutante actress (Cristina Kovani) to spend a few days of sun and sea at a luxury hotel on an almost deserted island. The boat trip is a journey by sea, and they disembark just as a storm hits Santa Águeda. There, the magnificent hotel is run by an elegant and serious woman (Maribel Verdú) and hosts a group of millionaires and peculiar guests: an aspiring mystery writer who is Basil’s fan (Martiño Rivas), a wealthy sad woman (María Valverde), a doctor (Pepón Nieto)…
“La novela de Reverte respira elegancia y clasicismo. Estos huéspedes no eran turistas del desarrollismo que inexorablemente está a punto de eclosionar sino los últimos viajeros de una época crepuscular pre masificación sesentera”, explica Errazquín. “Clasicismo, elegancia, fin de una era, cierta decadencia de un mundo que fue… este era el olor de toda la producción”.
