Movie Review: En la Cama (In Bed)
May 9th, 2008 by admin
- Director: Matías Bize
- Genre: Drama
- Year: 2005
It is difficult to top Linklater in this genre, the content heavy, dialogue driven, simply set type drama that submerge you into a situation and leave you engaged for the duration of the film. He did it twice with Before Sunrise and with Before Sunset and he did it also in Tape, all of which are movies that I greatly enjoyed.
Matías Bize makes an attempt to do the same and while he is largely successful at it, it seems that he falls short of the achievements Richard Linklater got to. Of course, this is unfair, in that one would be putting Bize against a pretty high bar to begin with. This film is pretty good, considering that the entire cast is two people, practically strangers and the set is essentially a bed (there is only one short scene in which they are in the tub, the rest of the movie literally takes place while they are in bed).
Daniela and Bruno clearly do not know each other, this much is uncovered immediately after their first sexual bout with opens up the film, where Bruno is having to dig and prod to remember the girls name. Interesting then, how much room is covered in this one night, which is credible up to a point, but that is where certain strings in the material begin to show and snap. There is some content that is forced in the film, too easily brushed off to be completely realistic and on the part of the director, a certain number of predictable shots threaten to dismember the artistic tower of cards he is building.
I am probably being far too picky with this, it is still a very enjoyable movie, with an interesting situation and character development and as one would expect from a film that takes place in bed, some steamy sex as well. I only want to warn the viewer that they should not expect Linklater material. Go in with lower standards and likely you will enjoy this movie just fine.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Notes: Explicit sexuality. Spanish with English subtitles