“Bardem and his charm carry this film…although Manolo Solo is ever reliable“
Con Nats
3 /5 scales
This film was Spain’s nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards this year and won a slew of Goya Awards, and they’ve gone for a satirical office comedy featuring Javier Bardem playing a comic role.
It starts with Blanco (Javier Bardem) giving his workers on the factory floor the usual speech talking about being a family, having open doors, a willingness to help with problems and a desire to win awards. In fact, it becomes Blanco’s obsession and symbolically, his factory makes scales.
This is followed by the usual revelations of corporate hypocrisy: red wine being served at a farewell party while the workers toil and costs are being cut; the fact Blanco has an unhealthy regard for female interns, particularly Liliana (Almudena Amor); a retrenched worker who sets up a protest outside the factory (Oscar de la Fuente) and a depressed colleague, Miralles, (Manolo Solo) who’s marriage is falling apart and mistakes are being tolerated. All these sub-plots are intertwined as Blanco’s obsession to win causes him to intervene in these people’s lives and then go too far.
If you’ve worked in a corporate environment, these revelations aren’t much of a surprise and all too familiar, so it’s sometimes hard to find the humour in them. The funniest character is Roman (Fernando Albizu), the security guard who gives the protester tips on rhyme and cadence with his slogans. Just about every other character is hard to like and the best you can give is sympathy. And the late plot twists are hardly comic and quite dark.
Bardem and his charm carry this film. Only Bardem can make Blanco even remotely likeable in this cast of the unlikeable, although Manolo Solo is ever reliable. Bardem makes every moment believable and takes you with him, reluctantly. It’s good watching one of the best actors in cinema strut his stuff. Director and co-writer Fernando de Aranoa was lucky to have him.
All the cast are convincing and play the drama. The problem is the script is so realistic and dark, it lacks the light to make it a likeable comedy and the story twists are more dramatic than comic and a little heavy handed. There are chuckles but not enough laughs, especially if you’ve worked in a company. This is the face of capitalism; I’m not sure if it’s modern day, as it has always been so. It’s just that now they dress it with platitudes. There are no real surprises, and it’s too close to the bone to be funny. Satire should mock its subjects and their vices; this film seems to merely present them with little judgement.
Con Nats, On The Screen
