Rating: C+
Dir: F. Javier Gutiérrez
Star: Víctor Clavijo, Pedro Casablanc, Ruth Díaz, Moisés Ruiz
a.k.a. La espera
I… have questions. I think I liked it, but the admiration I feel for the cinematic style is certainly tempered by the fact I don’t feel I truly understood this. Oh, on the highest level, it’s fine. Eladio (Clavijo) is a gamekeeper on the estate of Don Francisco (Casablanc). An underling offers Eladio a bribe to cram in extra shooting stands, and his wife Marcia (Díaz) overrides his concerns about safety, insisting they need the money. This leads to tragedy, as an apparent stray bullet kills their 13-year-old son, and Marcia subsequently commits suicide, racked by guilt at her role. Eladio is left alone, to ponder the devastating loss of his family.
This sends him off to a downward spiral of depression and borderline insanity, in particular after he kills the minion – albeit somewhat in self-defense. And this is where things become increasingly weird, for he finds evidence of an occult conspiracy, run by Don Francisco. It seems that every three years, his predecessors as gamekeeper have committed suicide, and there’s also hints that his son’s death was not the accident it seemed. There is a lot here which simply occurs, without explanation (not least because Eladio is alone for the bulk of the movie). For instance, the dream sequence in which he goes full An American Werewolf in London. Or the buried box he digs up, containing various artifacts, including an animal skull. As I said: questions.
This takes place in seventies Andalusia, but outside of occasional references to TVs, etc. it feels like it could be any point in the past century. Time seems to have stood still in this corner of rural Spain. It’s oppressively hot, everything (and everyone) is encrusted with dirt, and things operate on an almost feudal basis. The director said his movie is “rich with symbolism and biblical references,” and that might be the problem, since I’m not exactly up on my biblical references. This makes me miss the days of DVD commentaries, because I suspect one with Gutiérrez explaining that symbolism, would be an enlightening and fascinating experience.
Instead, you’re left trying to put together pieces, which may not even be from the same puzzle. For Eladio’s credentials as a reliable narrator are certainly questionable, especially as he sinks further towards the brink of madness, hallucinating things like the return of his dead son. It remains an interesting experience, held together by the largely wordless performance of Clavijo, which commands sympathy and concern in equal measure. However, it’s also frustrating in its obtuseness, with the folk horror elements in the final act perhaps causing more problems than they solve. I found it worked better when Gutiérrez kept things simple, going for a portrayal of the devastating consequences of loss and survivor’s guilt. This is more than enough to carry the story and the viewer’s interest, and much of what’s added beyond it, feels like unnecessary garnish, better left on a side-plate.
[The film is out theatrically now in select locations, and is on VOD October 4th]