Shadows on the Wall

Bunker

dir-scr Florian Zeller
prd Fernando Bovaira, Alice Dawson, Simon de Santiago, Federica Sainte-Rose, Florian Zeller
with Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Mark Gatiss, Leah Conh, Chloe Conh, Eileen Atkins, Karen Ascoe, Jamie Bisping, Shelley Williams
release US Sep.26 daff,
UK Oct.6 lff
26/UK Pathe 2h06

TORONTO FILM FEST

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Here's another complex melodrama from writer-director Florian Zeller, this time anchored in resonant performances from real-life couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as a husband and wife who begin to doubt their connection due to events in their personal and professional lives. The way this plays out feels somewhat contrived, and most of the big moments are predictable. But it carries several strong kicks along the way.

In London, Spanish architect Miguel (Bardem) lives happily with his book-editor wife Sofia (Cruz), daughters Lucia and Rosa (Chloe and Leah Conh). Their busy life is interrupted when their neighbour Toby (Graham) knocks a hole in the wall of their garden, installing a window looking straight at their glass-box home. Meanwhile, Miguel is asked to build a monolithic bunker in Hawaii for a tech billionaire (Dano). And Sofia becomes intrigued by the ideas about personal legacy in a book by her author Jeremy (Schwarzenegger). Tension rises when she asks Miguel turn down this new job.

Skilfully shot in beautiful locations, the film looks almost achingly cool, as the sets offer commentary on what is happening. Even the family's curious grey cat Blue is a rock star. Deeper ideas begin to emerge early on, as they attend a friend's art show featuring finely detailed paintings that are obscured with inky black paint. And then there's Miguel's colleague (Gatiss) urging him to build what is essentially a pyramid for this modern-day pharaoh.

Both Bardem and Cruz find terrific internalised textures that expose what holds Miguel and Sofia together, and also what seems to be pulling them apart, even though they can't articulate it. Watching them try is fascinating, and often strongly involving. This complexity isn't quite as apparent in the characters around them, also finely played but without as much space for nuance. Graham, Dano and Schwarzenegger are able to create some particularly vivid presence, as does the great Atkins in a single scene.

As the story threads tighten in around this couple, people around them begin to fade into the background, reduced to plot points. This comes together in a seriously intense climactic sequence that feels a little fantastical, playing up the very paranoia they criticised in this tech bro. And it's fairly easy to guess the film's final shot from early on. That said, the bigger ideas do give us reasons to pause for thought. Despite its more simplistic touches, this isn't a film that's easy to shrug off.

themes, language, violence 8.Sep.26 vff

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