Ana and Marcelo are both high-middle class professionals enjoying a comfortable social standing. They have a nice flat, an only son who goes abroad to further his studies, and what could be described as a smooth, well adjusted marriage life, without violence or abuse, though with some hints of passive-aggresive daily fencing.
The «empty-nest syndrome» gives room for them to explore how they feel about each other and admit some boredom due to the predictability of common life, spiced with the little daily irritations and annoyances of a 25-year old marriage. Finally, they admit that they are «not infatuated any longer» with each other, and they don't feel confident about spending the rest of their future with that feeling on their hearts.
Thinking that divorce could relieve them from this weary feeling, they experience new romances (some scenes are funny), and they even form stable new relationships with new partners.
Some years pass by, and then a new crisis related to their son gives again room for them to find how deeply they miss the familiarity and shared history they had built together. They are still «no longer infatuated with each other», but they choose to rekindle their life together cherishing what they have crafted as a couple, rather than picking on what is missing.
If this unoriginal, much treaded story had been performed by other actors, the movie would have probably been boring and flat. Dialogues are long (Argentinean urban educated couples dialogue about themselves much in this vain, probably due to their popular culture of psychoanalysis), and the whole thing could have ended up in a pretentious theatrical babble, but Darín and Morán are such an extraordinary pair, so tremendously talented, that they make you empathize deeply with their predicament and feelings, adding reality and vividness to the film.
Kudos to the casting director: all secondary actors have been simply perfect in their roles. No part has been wasted, indeed.
In short, it is neither Bergman nor Nora Ephron, but it is enjoyable; it pulses a chord in those who have had long marriages, and the performances are really memorable.
The «empty-nest syndrome» gives room for them to explore how they feel about each other and admit some boredom due to the predictability of common life, spiced with the little daily irritations and annoyances of a 25-year old marriage. Finally, they admit that they are «not infatuated any longer» with each other, and they don't feel confident about spending the rest of their future with that feeling on their hearts.
Thinking that divorce could relieve them from this weary feeling, they experience new romances (some scenes are funny), and they even form stable new relationships with new partners.
Some years pass by, and then a new crisis related to their son gives again room for them to find how deeply they miss the familiarity and shared history they had built together. They are still «no longer infatuated with each other», but they choose to rekindle their life together cherishing what they have crafted as a couple, rather than picking on what is missing.
If this unoriginal, much treaded story had been performed by other actors, the movie would have probably been boring and flat. Dialogues are long (Argentinean urban educated couples dialogue about themselves much in this vain, probably due to their popular culture of psychoanalysis), and the whole thing could have ended up in a pretentious theatrical babble, but Darín and Morán are such an extraordinary pair, so tremendously talented, that they make you empathize deeply with their predicament and feelings, adding reality and vividness to the film.
Kudos to the casting director: all secondary actors have been simply perfect in their roles. No part has been wasted, indeed.
In short, it is neither Bergman nor Nora Ephron, but it is enjoyable; it pulses a chord in those who have had long marriages, and the performances are really memorable.