Review by
Benjamin Poole
Directed by: Antonio Méndez Esparza
Starring: Malena Alterio, Aitana Sánchez Gijón, José Luis Torrijo, Mariona Ribas, Rodrigo
Poisón
Life is nothing without obsession; an intrinsic dynamo which should, if
you're existing correctly, power your every waking moment, whether in the
short term (spending a morning searching "Kristen Stewart wearing suit" in
Pinterest) or the long term (maintaining that washboard stomach despite
the twin temptations of food and drink; yet further fixations, the
fanatical indulgence of which lends the otherwise meaningless four score
and twenty sybaritic purpose). Can't find a suitable interest? Revenge is
a good start. Remember that person who done you over that one time? Devote
time and effort to ways in which to get your own back. Start with living
well and go from there; turn that negative into a positive: live laugh
loathe. Or, if you are of a more kindly nature, what about a crush; an
idle fascination with some person on the bus, a pop star, maybe even a
co-worker? The ensuing daydreams, those naughty little fantasies, will
sustain your imagination until they inevitably evaporate, such is the
nature of capricious mania.
Caveat: be careful though. You need to keep a sense of humour about such
notions, or that way madness lies. Take Lucía (Malena Alterio),
protagonist of Antonio Méndez Esparza's (with script duties shared
with Clara Roquet in this adaptation of Juan José Millás'
novel) Something is About to Happen: she's on the edge of Travis Bickle style disassociation and even ends
up driving a taxi around the clean streets of Madrid as part of her
obsessive odyssey. Beginning when she loses her cushy job as a computer
programmer, catalysed when she has a romantic fling with an opera
listening actor neighbour (fancy!), and further impelled by the harsh
realities of caring for an elderly and infirm father, no wonder Lucia
needs something to focus on in her spiralling existence. And so, she
becomes a sherbet, God's lonely woman, navigating the city caminos in the
hope of once again bumping into the absconded hunk Braulio (Rodrigo Poisón). An incurable romantic, Lucia maintains that "love is the ultimate
fuel"....
(In the original source, the fantastical nature of Lucia's narrative is
apparently more explicit, in the sense that the book makes it clear that
the drama is exclusively the suspect imaginings of a lonely woman. I've
never really liked this sort of "it was all a dream" chicanery within
constructed narratives. The way people make such a big deal about the end
of The Usual Suspects where it turns out that the story
we've just been watching for nigh on two hours didn't actually happen
within the diegesis of the film annoys me. What is the point? None of it's
"real," anyway: did you think you were watching a documentary?! In
Something is About to Happen though, the presentation is
pleasingly more ambiguous, with the meta elements in the last act
manifesting a Kafka-esque, claustrophobic atmosphere. And, in the movie,
if Lucia is daydreaming all of this, then the experiences she has are very
quotidian, and tinged with a sadness which is not concurrent with
aspiration.)
Sexy, funny and heart-breaking, Alterio excels in the lead role. A veteran
of sitcom acting, she engenders Lucia with a radiant humanity, and is
completely relatable even when her behaviour becomes increasingly
transgressive. Unlike her abovementioned cabbie forbearer, Lucia is kind
to her fares, offering gentle humour, and even, in the case of a passenger
who has just received a fatal diagnosis, a pity shag. The taxi proves to
be a durable cinematic metaphor in this film, with its lead character
adrift in a city full of stories, abstractly searching for her own arc.
However, this is where your mileage (ha) may vary with
Something is About to Happen, as, per the title's implication, the plot ignites and stalls around a
causal narrative line before disappearing up its own tailpipe. I was happy
to be taken along for the ride though, finding Lucia a magnetic character,
and her petty attempts at self-actualisation deeply human and, due to
Alterio's performance, understandable.
Perhaps there is an indefinite suggestion at the heart of
Something is About to Happen concerning the stories we tell
ourselves, which are in turn inspired by the expectations we have for our
lives, hopes which are increasingly thwarted as we reach certain ages. If
there is such an ideology here and you arrive at that destination via
Lucia's deft knowledge and navigation, then great. But for the rest of us,
Something is About to Happen's tour of middle-aged ennui is not about the terminus but the
bittersweet journey.
Something is About to Happen is on
US VOD from February 14th. A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
