‘Mari(dos)’: Deconstructing masculinity with comedy

After the intimate ‘La innocencia’, Castellón’s Lucía Alemany takes a radical turn for her second directorial feature with ‘Mari(dos)’a crazy comedy with which he tries to deconstruct masculinity at the hands of Paco León and Ernesto Alterio, two men who discover they are married to the same womanplayed by Celia Freijeiro, who is in a coma after being one of the victims of an avalanche that occurred in the city of Malpaso.

The premise is interesting and already indicates a change of perspective. Usually, at least in the cinema, the double life of men was reflected. The impetus for the beginning of the story chooses to bring to the comedy a reality that Alexander Payne showed more dramatically. in ‘The Descendants’ or Antoine Barraud in “Madeleine Collins”. Alemany’s gaze differs as he tries to break a reality that could have resulted in a melodramatic situation. Here you see the hand of your scripts, Pablo Alén and Brexio Corral, who have experience in stories with offbeat female leads such as “3 more weddings” and “What’s at stake?”

They seem, above all, good intentions and Alemany’s desire to combine crazy comedy, elegant comedy and family cinema. Very few, therefore, the more frontal moments of humour, of the so-called house brushing, which lead the comic situations to seek the accomplice smile before the big laugh. On the other hand, the director does not forget the touch of a film for all viewers, which comes when the children of both husbands enter the scene.

Paco León and Ernesto Alterio know how to have chemistry and a certain sexual tension

However, there are some differences between form and substance. Alemany manages to direct with an elegance that prevents a somewhat irregular background from being seen, but whose script staggers too much in its narrative turns. The premise starts off well until its final part, when Alén y Corral’s script tries to avoid leaving its male protagonists too good.

And it starts well for the willingness to focus on the deconstruction of the character of both protagonists. Here there is a good understanding between Paco León and Ernesto Alterio. The former, who embodies an affable Catalan, has a certain naïve touch that hides a passive-aggressive character. The second is the opposite, overly ironic, cynical and verbally abusive. The two end up putting their differences aside and living in an ambiguous brotherhood, to which the plot leads in the romantic comedy.showing two men deconstructing what is expected of them.

And all went well until the end, when the character of the wife bursts onto the scene again. There, it gives the impression that the writers want to avoid showing the more negative side of the female character, making that message of gender role reversal remain in the middle. It also doesn’t help that, in its desire to be a family comedy, the story opens up subplots that stay halfway and lead nowhere.

That friction in the texture makes “Mari(dos)” both a correct comedy, but which gave much more. It has elements that differentiate it from what can be expected from such a proposal, which is commendable. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t end.

Note: 5

The best: Its first part and as the characters of León and Alterio begin to have an ambiguous chemistry and sexual tension.

Worse: Its final part does not complete its message on the deconstruction of gender roles.