From Argentinian filmmaker Marcelo Piñeyro comes a very interesting and bizarre movie. The concept is somewhat innovative, the storyline is definitely beyond one’s initial expectations and the acting is stupendous. It isn’t a movie about Africa but I decided to blog about it simply because it really surprised me and, oh well, because I love Spanish movies. The movie is called El Metodo (The Method.) Seven people get to a job interview. They are put in a corporate conference room and the process of choosing the best of them is based on natural selection. Whoever can outlast the others gets the job. There are different tests they have to go through. They are first being told that one of them is not a real contestant and that they have to vote on who they think is the impostor.  Then, they have to choose a leader but when they do so, the contestants are fed with a news article that starts some intense debate among the seven which ends by revoking the leader’s right to represent them. And his elimination. That’s all I’m willing to say so as not to ruin the fun of watching the it. The idea itself is not new. It’s pretty much a Big Brother show but for but for business people. Something like “The Apprentice,” but more entertaining, splashed with instances of “Survivor”. Good concept and ingenious way of materializing it. The film’s title refers to the so-called Grönholm Method, a supposedly revolutionary testing process that will bring the best – and the worst – of the candidates.

Some of the tests people have to pass push the candidates over the limit. Just like in real life. That is why I recommend this movie. It shows just how many tests one person is expected to pass through life to succeed and how difficult it gets when you are asked to do that in a controlled environment. And of course, how expensive and exhausting the price of ambition can be. Those who cannot adapt get eliminated. Some eliminate themselves.Perhaps the greatest part of the movie is how the Argentinian filmmaker lays out the seven personalities present in the room. The movie has a slow start, but it gets better and better as the complex characters in the movie unfold.

The last scene of the movie is perhaps not needed. It gives the necessary ending, the regular scene that we expect to see before the movie is over. Moreover, the idea of having two last candidates that knew each other in the past seems to weaken the quality of the movie making it more look like a soap opera than a serious movie. But again, a more condensed combination of Big Brother and The Apprentice that happens in one day in contemporary Spain seems to be something worth watching.

One of the actors is Argentinean which reminded me of the fabulous country where I spent several amazing months back in 2007, so it kept me smiling throughout the movie. That and the ridiculousness of the whole situation, the tension in the room and the desguised humor that comes to surface from time to time.

I’ll give it 7/10. They could have been just a little more original. But the actors and the humor compensate for that.

Movie trailer

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