By 
By Roger Costa
We are not all the time the same people, we keep on changing, adapting; It depends on who is around, that will define and classify who we are, at that moment, at that circumstance, facing a challenge, a desire, an inevitable path. That’s one of the lines delivered by a key character in this hilarious comedy, which brings an astonishing performance by Oscar-winning iconic star Javier Bardem, and perfectly embodies what happens with the people populating it.
Bardem magnificently plays a successful business man, running a historic and prestigious scales factory, where he aims to develop a direct and personal relationship with his employees, even calling some of them as family members of his own. But behind his charismatic, helpful and patient personality, lies a man in crisis, on the edge of a breakdown, or perhaps, even tragedy. Not because he is facing the consequences of an action, but because of the disoriented people around him. There’s nothing on him to blame, as he is thrown at a trial by life itself and by the pursuit of his own interests- which most of the time seems to be looking after other people.
As he tidily prepares the factory for an important visit from the committee responsible to elect and award the best scales factory, he literally has to deal with a fan full of obstacles casting a series of troubles right on his face. Though he is determined to offer a hand and promptly arrange solution for the problems rapidly surging during that crucial week, he gradually loses his balance, bending towards unconventional ways of solving the matter, especially when that threatens to hit him- or his interests. Who wouldn’t defend and protect your own interests, the legacy one has built over the years, the prestige, the recognition, the struggle? But he also fails in some attempts, emotionally, professionally and morally, as he is tempted by believing he is able to sort it out on his own terms.
Divided into chapters that follow each day of the week, the articulated plot addresses the unemployment crisis, ethnical tension in Europe, morality, fidelity and integrity both at home and at the workplace, among other relevant issues ironically mirroring contemporary aspects of our troubled world.
So, in this calendar, big boss Blanco has a chance to change the curse of disaster while trying to fix out a bunch of eccentrics: his manager who is going through a mental (and macho) crisis due to his wife’s adulterous escapes, the arrival of seductive young girls at the internship program carrying some devastating surprises, his wife’s demands to keep her lingerie shop in order, a special request from an old mechanic in the factory who needs to bail out his reckless son after he was involved in a racial crime, the trouble that a recently cutoff employee makes camping outside the gates of the factory demanding his job back and outrageously making demonstrations of the consequences that unemployment will bring to him, and his family (he even brings his children to protest along), and the strangely arbitrary reactions and emotional, hormonal turbulence of all of his employees. Just to name a particular case, his gate guard openly sympathizes with the protester becoming sort of an intercessor between both sides of the gate. That makes for some of the funniest moments in the film, which is a great vehicle for the talent of its cast, and the confirmation of Bardem as one of our most precious, versatile and chameleonic performers- plus he makes a blast of his comedic vein exceeding in debauchery, cynicism and sarcasm. A Golden Globe nomination fits well in the Best Actor Comedy category honoring his scene-stealer ability and charisma.
As for director Fernando Leon de Aranoa, he scores his best film to date, and undoubtedly one of this year’s sharpest comedies, an irreverent, bittersweet, hilarious and socially consciousness satire of the privileged.
Get ready to laugh out loud throughout two amazing hours of pure entertainment.
(Cohen Media Group. 8/25. Quad Cinema and BAM.)
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