El buen patron arrives in our land crowned with six Goya prizes (the equivalent of the Iris prizes in Spain), including those awarded to the best film, the best director, the best screenplay and the best actor, Javier Bardem.
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
This social comedy was also rewarded with a success which, in the country of Rafael Nadal, has practically turned into a phenomenon. It is true that, without falling into farce, and thanks also to a remarkable performance by the person who personifies Stilgar in Dunesby Denis Villeneuve, A good boss stands out favorably.
Reuniting with director Fernando León de Aranoa for the third time, Javier Bardem, almost unrecognizable, slips into the skin of the boss of a family business specializing in the manufacture of scales of all kinds. He also insists that the one adorning the gate at the entrance to his factory is always impeccably balanced, even if, obviously, the notion of justice within his company is rather flexible.
Obsessed with the image of the company and obtaining prizes and trophies, Blanco (Javier Bardem) speaks first to his employees to give the instructions before the visit of a committee which could – or not – award him a prestigious entrepreneurship prize. We quickly understand that this paternalistic boss, falsely benevolent, cheerfully transgresses the most basic ethical rules to take advantage of everything. His wife does not fail to point out to him that his only merit will have been to make an appointment with the notary to receive the inheritance bequeathed to him by his father.
Without seeming too much
The situation thickens when a series of events follow one another to finally orchestrate a rather catastrophic context. First there is this dismissed employee (Óscar de la Fuente) who decides to protest in a noisy way by setting up camp on the ground in front of the factory, where he vociferates his unflattering slogans on the megaphone with the tacit complicity of the guardian. On the eve of the coming of the committee for the awarding of the famous prize of excellence, this does not bode well.
There is Miralles (Manolo Solo), this childhood friend whose father also worked at the factory (when it was run by Blanco’s father), who is going through a period of depression – his wife cheats on him with one of the foremen – to the point of not being able to do his job properly. There is this son of a faithful old employee, involved in a fight where there was death. And then there’s this new trainee (Almudena Amor), with whom Blanco couldn’t help but have an affair, which will also, perhaps, confuse the issue…
The great quality of the screenplay by Fernando León de Aranoa, a filmmaker best known in the Spanish-speaking world (he has a dozen feature films to his credit, including a few documentaries), is to offer a very scathing portrait without seeming too much. of the exercise of power. To do this, he could not find a better performer than Javier Bardem.
Visibly happy to shoot at home, the actor has a field day in a bastard character, as manipulative as he is a liar, through which he nevertheless manages to always find the right note, to the point of almost giving his character the the benefit of the doubt.
El buen patron is showing in the original Spanish version with French subtitles (under the title A good boss) or English (under the title The Good Boss).
Comedy
A good boss
Fernando Leon de Aranoa
With Javier Bardem, Manolo Solo, Almudena Amor
1:56
Indoors