Heavy is the head that wears the crown

It's not often that I describe a film as "simply delightful", but that was the phrase that was in my head as we walked out of the Michigan Theater last Tuesday after having seen The Good Boss (El Buen Patrón.) It was almost everything that I would ask of a dark comedy: believable characters, tension, drama, uncertainty, but still riddled with moments of humor that constantly played to the presence of the audience, only narrowly avoiding the breaking of the fourth wall. It was an excellent example of filmmaking from screenplay to acting to direction to camera work. What excited me most was that it was simply a smart film. It didn't play to the lowest common denominator like a lot of modern comedies (see, for example: Knives Out.) It respects the audience's intelligence about the modern world of work, industry, and corporate attitudes, but also doesn't sink to cynicism about the whole process. The more reprehensible motivations of the good boss in question (the brilliant Javier Bardem) have little to do with profit and almost everything to do with vanity and a desire to simply keep things running smoothly for his own gratification, rather than any material motive.

In fact, the central plot line is rooted in that concept of vanity. Julio Blanco (Bardem) owns a multi-award winning company that makes scales and he's anticipating being handed another one by a local chamber of commerce for "business excellence." Of course, in the process, Julio will try to encourage his employees to keep their private lives out of his business so that nothing gives the wrong impression to the committee. This includes his childhood friend's (Manolo Solo) marital issues that also involve his capable shipping foreman (Tarik Rmili), an elderly welder's (Celso Bogallo) son who happens to be a petty thief, and an attractive young intern that Julio later realizes he has a deeper connection with than he realizes. Most of those situations involve people that are doing a fine job of lying to themselves (the purest expression of vanity), in addition to others, and none of them are those that you would expect your employer to become involved in, but Julio is, of course, in the name of presenting an image of one big, happy family in front of the regular people with regular problems that make up his workforce. This is on top of the recently-fired employee who has camped out on the hill overlooking the company entrance in a protest over losing his job and whom neither the security guard out front (Fernando Albizu) nor the local police seem very interested in removing.

It's not difficult to see the obvious comedy threads inherent to all of these situations, but none of them devolve to slapstick or are set up in the ham-handed method of something like Knives Out. All of them grow naturally from what seem like everyday situations and which maintain an air of intelligence that leaves the viewer interested in the story, as well as the jokes. The underlying issues of labor vs management, the value of work, the bonds of childhood loyalty, and the question of work-life balance are all present. The film fully embraces these social issues but doesn't become weighted down by them. Much of that free-flowing pace is a result of Bardem's ability to keep each scene moving, but he's helped by excellent performances by the rest of the cast, not least Oscar de la Fuente, as José, the wronged employee, who is fully aware as a character of his own absurdity and remarks wryly on it in multiple moments with the security guard, Román. Almudena Amor is also excellent as Liliana, the intern, who is only too conscious of her power over Julio from the moment she sees him and isn't afraid to exercise it, not for personal gain, but to fulfill an urge she's felt since childhood. Their relationship is the backdrop to a dinner table scene (also including her parents and Julio's wife, Inés (Yael Belicha)) that is almost the equal of the famous one from Little Miss Sunshine, albeit in a very different vein of comedy. It's a really remarkable film and it's surprising that it hasn't received more approbation than it has.