Jacobo rolls up the shutter. He starts up the machines. Marta has cigarette breaks. The other girls natter at lunch-time. Marta checks their bags at home-time... From the very start of the film, the repetition of these little factory scenarios draws in the viewer, lulling us into a sense of familiarity with the character's monotonous daily lives. Shown once, it would make mundane footage, but the scenes familiarise and soon endear the viewer through their repetition. Over years and years, such a lifestyle can make you an extension of the very machines you work.
It is remarkable how the film remains lightly humorous in spite of what is (arguably) an overall atmosphere of drabness and gloom. The said gloom is cast, and held fast, by Jacobo, despite Herman's perkiness and enthusiasm. Is the latter's arrival from Brazil a pleasant antidote to the glum life chosen by Jacobo (and undergone by Marta)? Does Herman's optimism, and their trip to the clapped out resort of Piriapolis, succeed in bringing some variation and - dare I say it - PLEASURE into their lives? The answer to these questions depends on your point of view. Marta, I would say, certainly enters into the spirit of the holiday, warming to Herman as she gains confidence. Don Jacobo? Barely! An example of this is when Herman admires the 'thumbs-up' magnet off the fridge; Jacobo puts it back thumbs down!
The absence of music gives the everyday household sounds more relevance, as well as complimenting the domestic comedy. This disciplined economy of sound gives the music much more impact when we do hear it, as in Jacobo's big moment at the roulette wheel. (This is, incidentally, the first time in the film that he displays any hint of a smile.)
Bathroom sketches involving Don Jacobo and Marta are particularly observantly delivered. He walks in on her in the bathroom; she flushes the toilet out of utter boredom at Piriapolis; he sits on the toilet to count winnings; she puts paper over a public toilet seat. We are charmed and amused to have a window onto the very private lives of these two colleagues, now acting as a couple but both reluctant and unfamiliar with married life.
The late mother's honour ceremony is given a single short scene but is preceded by Herman's Jewish joke, revealing him as a self-mocking character. Neither does Don Jacobo display the stereo-typical miserly traits associated with Jews in past times: he is no 'Harpagon' with his roulette winnings, taking a small amount for himself and gifting the rest to Marta.
I am disappointed by Herman's over-long karaoke scene, the poor sequencing of the football match, and the clumsy non-native subtitling ('Soap is at your discretion, señora' - a literal translation from the Spanish). On the other hand, symmetrical 'plans fixes' (fixed shots) occurring throughout – the factory front, the air hockey table, a steaming swimming pool – are very pleasing to the eye.
An endearing, self-contained film of subtle humour, with a modest and unpretentious ending, superbly fitting.
It is remarkable how the film remains lightly humorous in spite of what is (arguably) an overall atmosphere of drabness and gloom. The said gloom is cast, and held fast, by Jacobo, despite Herman's perkiness and enthusiasm. Is the latter's arrival from Brazil a pleasant antidote to the glum life chosen by Jacobo (and undergone by Marta)? Does Herman's optimism, and their trip to the clapped out resort of Piriapolis, succeed in bringing some variation and - dare I say it - PLEASURE into their lives? The answer to these questions depends on your point of view. Marta, I would say, certainly enters into the spirit of the holiday, warming to Herman as she gains confidence. Don Jacobo? Barely! An example of this is when Herman admires the 'thumbs-up' magnet off the fridge; Jacobo puts it back thumbs down!
The absence of music gives the everyday household sounds more relevance, as well as complimenting the domestic comedy. This disciplined economy of sound gives the music much more impact when we do hear it, as in Jacobo's big moment at the roulette wheel. (This is, incidentally, the first time in the film that he displays any hint of a smile.)
Bathroom sketches involving Don Jacobo and Marta are particularly observantly delivered. He walks in on her in the bathroom; she flushes the toilet out of utter boredom at Piriapolis; he sits on the toilet to count winnings; she puts paper over a public toilet seat. We are charmed and amused to have a window onto the very private lives of these two colleagues, now acting as a couple but both reluctant and unfamiliar with married life.
The late mother's honour ceremony is given a single short scene but is preceded by Herman's Jewish joke, revealing him as a self-mocking character. Neither does Don Jacobo display the stereo-typical miserly traits associated with Jews in past times: he is no 'Harpagon' with his roulette winnings, taking a small amount for himself and gifting the rest to Marta.
I am disappointed by Herman's over-long karaoke scene, the poor sequencing of the football match, and the clumsy non-native subtitling ('Soap is at your discretion, señora' - a literal translation from the Spanish). On the other hand, symmetrical 'plans fixes' (fixed shots) occurring throughout – the factory front, the air hockey table, a steaming swimming pool – are very pleasing to the eye.
An endearing, self-contained film of subtle humour, with a modest and unpretentious ending, superbly fitting.