|
105 MINUTES|SPANISH|KENDALL SQUARE Rafael (Guillermo Toledo) lives by Goethe’s maxim that anything is bearable except a succession of ordinary days. Working the Ladies’ section of Yeyo’s, a Madrid department store, he sells fur coats and compliments to insecure fiftysomethings in a quest to become floor manager. At night the vain rake wines and dines his nubile colleagues in Home Goods and Beauty, and finishes them off in the changing room. Rafael suffers his comeuppance from Lourdes, a homely subordinate who blackmails him into marriage after witnessing him accidentally kill a competitor from Men’s. Álex de la Iglesia’s black comedy maps Rafael’s male fantasies onto the surreal, hermetic world of Yeyo’s, borrowing tone from After Hours and a twist from Hitchcock. More than a genre flick, the film reveals layers that will keep you off balance. In spite of stale physical comedy, de la Iglesia crafts a madcap morality tale about the flight from mediocrity, which although not perfect, is anything but ordinary.
BY MATTIAS FREY
|
