By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4.5 cats
Director: Carlos Jaureguialzo
Starring: Cecilia Roth | Dario Grandinetti | Manuel Vicente | Marcelo Melingo | Rafael Spregelburd | Susans Lanteri
Original language title: Matrimonio
Country: argentina
Year: 2013
Running time: 75
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2400262/combined
Bruce says: “Loosely based on the characters of Leopold and Molly Bloom in James Joyce’s Ulysses, MARRIAGE is a dawn-to-dusk examination of a marriage from within the minds of both husband and wife. It is a day in which both explore the loneliness of life and the doubts one can still have about fidelity and love after 23 years of being together. In MARRIAGE the couple is Esteban (Dario Grandinetti) and Molly (Cecilia Roth). We get into Esteban’s thoughts immediately. Half asleep, half awake, he thinks, ‘Maybe we are supposed to get divorced,’ just before his Blackberry alarm goes off. He makes coffee and stares at the bottle of perfume, the perfume he had hoped Molly would help him test. He prepares to leave but his car won’t start. The kitchen faucet is leaking. When he returns to the bedroom to ask Molly if he can borrow her car, she is on the phone, whispering under the covers. His worst suspicions of Molly’s infidelity are suddenly confirmed and he will spend the remainder of the day dwelling on his misfortune. At work he cannot seem to jumpstart the new perfume campaign. Esteban is obsessed. He calls Molly several times during the day but he only gets voicemail.
“In the subway Esteban chats with a violinist. ‘She says I take possession of her thoughts,’ he confides to the musician. He thinks he sees Molly about to enter a subway train and grabs her. She screams; it is not Molly but a total stranger who bears a faint resemblance from behind. Esteban is taken to police headquarters but the woman’s husband agrees not to press charges.
“Next we see a foot slipping out from under the covers and a replay of the day begins from Molly’s perspective. We soon learn that it is indeed a lover on the phone; Molly agrees to meet him just before Esteban enters the bedroom to ask about the car. We learn why Molly did not answer the phone: she is Skypeing with her daughter in Europe; she is attempting to fix the kitchen faucet; she is at her therapy session discussing her agoraphobia and her pending affair; and she is meeting the man on the phone. “When Esteban finally reaches her on the phone, she tells him she is within viewing distance, on the stairs. ‘What you see as me is not me,’ she explains. Esteban slowly comes around. ‘Two people can spend a life together, but there will always be a place you cannot reach, inaccessible layers,’ he concedes. ‘One of us is going to see the other die,’ Molly laments. The film ends with tender resignation.
“Beautifully designed and photographed, MARRIAGE ranks as one of the most ethereal films ever made, on par with John Huston’s THE DEAD, an adaptation of Joyce’s short story from Dubliners. 4.5 cats
“(MARRIAGE screened at the 2013 Miami International Film Festival.)”