Miren Ibarguren’s comedic side stands out in this entanglement of 40-year-olds who are tired of their marriage and who play swingers to spice up their lives
Billy Wilder argued that Ernst Lubitsch “could suggest more through a closed door than other directors with their fly open.” Raising these two masters of comedy may be an exaggeration when analyzing “The Game of Keys,” which only strives to move quickly through the rooms to swell a platform’s catalog. The viewer, who sits on the couch with the mobile in his hand, sees until the end the fifth feature film by Vicente Villanueva, who has always moved at ease in the romantic comedy with a spicy point (‘The future is in porn’, ‘Mariquita con perro’) for feature films like ‘The opposite of love’ and ‘Toc Toc’. They are all handsome, they are hot and they take their clothes off at the first change in ‘The game of keys’. And the Valencia where the action takes place, with designer flats and trendy restaurants, helps to give a patina of sophistication to a plot seen more than the comic, supported by the actors.
How many films plunge dozens of married couples, lost in routine, who dare to change partners, in vertigo? This is what happens to the characters played by Eva Ugarte, María Castro and Miren Ibarguren, who, for various reasons, lack emotion and good sex in their respective relationships. The reunion with an old high school classmate (Fernando Guallar), who is involved with a very young influencer (Justina Bustos), will cause a stir in their bedrooms. Any game involving intimacy is dangerous, and throwing the keys in a container and then choosing one at random and sleeping with the owner unleashes jealousy, envy and frustration. In memory of lex de la Iglesia’s wondrous ‘Perfect Strangers’, in which four couples who have known each other for a lifetime played to read the messages and publicly answer the phone calls they received on their mobiles during a dinner.
‘The game of the keys’ joins other recent Spanish comedies that challenge new forms of sexuality through humor, such as ‘Kiki, love is made’ by Paco León and ‘Polyamory for beginners’ by Fernando Colomo. These characters on the brink of forty are already experiencing the boredom of marriage with children, professional frustration and a lack of courage when it comes to choosing their bedfellows. Villanueva does not strive for costumbrism, but for a tone that is somewhere between morbid and lewd. “Honey, my jaw is numb,” blurts out one of the characters as he performs a fellatio on his distracted husband under the covers. “Would you like to try one more little thing that will taste like the sea?” asks Miren Ibarguren, whose comedic vision is so powerful it makes up for every line of the script. The funny thing doesn’t dominate, it’s a tape that is meant to be modern, in which they confide in each other in the luxurious gym and drink beers at the bar.
There is no need to be afraid. ‘The Game of Keys’ ends with a wedding and one of the protagonists pregnant, after a scene in an ‘Eyes Wide Shut’-style orgy that is more chaste than a German TV movie on the table. In the middle a sequence of songs that don’t stop, including a performance by Mikel Erentxun and his ‘I can’t help it (think of you)’. It is proof for whom this comedy from Atresmedia is intended, of which Warner is marketing 300 copies. Characters like Instagram’s millennial queen or the Romanian governess who practices sadomaso aren’t enough to nurture vaudeville, which stalls when it comes to imagery. ‘The Game of Keys’ is based on a Mexican TV series of the same name that is broadcast by Amazon Prime Video. The Spanish remake is a perfect example of the movie model that platforms crave: light, beautiful and harmless.
Source: La Verdad
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