Words by JANE CROWTHER
Miguel and Sofia Mereno (Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz) seem to have it all. He’s an award winning architect, she’s an editor at a publishing house; they live in an expensive, beautiful house in London with their two children and pedigree cat. And when we first meet them Miguel is telling a table of friends at a high end restaurant the story of their romance. Over their first dinner he had wept as she talked and, moved by his sensitivity, she had kissed him. While the table sighs over this, Miguel quickly qualifies the story; she had cats, he was allergic, the tears were not real.
When the couple look into each other’s eyes after this confession there is another conversation that is going on – one that takes further shape as he accepts a commission to design a survival bunker for a tech billionaire (Paul Dano channeling Musk). The idea of building fortresses that only the rich can access is immoral to Sofia whose dissatisfaction with her career and marriage becomes a chasm as Miguel says of most things ‘in the end it all comes down to money’.
Money, and wealth disparity, are at the heart of Florian Zeller’s latest drama which explores the way rich people use their resources to control and insulate, that the more they have the more they fear losing. Miguel negotiates with his working class neighbour, Toby (an excellent Stephen Graham) using the lure of cash to smooth over a dispute about a window in a way that prompts Toby to drop the c-bomb under his breath. A massive payday is the sticking point between the spouses, and the spectre of robbery and economic revolution hangs over everything as the tech bro predicts social collapse and a security engineer insists on high-tech alarms in the family home.
But it’s also a study of a fractured marriage, fissuring under the pressure of unspoken discussion. Miguel and Sofia may seem to enjoy one another (they’re funny and light together as they attend a friend’s art gallery and are bemused by some of the pieces) but Sofia’s sadness in viewing a painting of intimacy, her reaction to a young author (Patrick Schwarzenegger) discussing the need to live in the moment, and even the way she folds herself into her duvet at night tell a different story. It’s like that meet-cute Miguel recounts – the reality is less romantic.
Though Zeller’s stagey screenplay and direction are handsome and hold interest, the material is elevated by the pairing of real-life couple Cruz and Bardem. Their genuine history informs every look and gesture, and it’s their humanity and warmth that nudges the final reel over the line as a rather too neat characterisation bait-and-switch is executed. As a conversation about class and economics, Bunker is slippery. As a depiction of mid-life marriage, it’s intriguing. But it’s most compelling as a portrait of the screen presence of Cruz and Bardem, and the tangible connection between them.
Words by JANE CROWTHER
Images courtesy of BLUE MORNING PICTURES/MOD PRODUCCIONES/PATHÉ FILMS
Bunker premiered at the 83rd Venice Film Festival
