POINTS: 4
Woody Allen once said that there’s nothing worse for a comedy actor than acting funny — and he doesn’t mean funny as in odd, but as in comical. The same truism can be applied to the genre: there’s nothing worse for a comedy than striving hard to be funny.
Comedy only occurs as a result of a well-constructed set of factors, let’s say, causes and effects, which were not necessarily meant to be funny in the first place. So the fun is an effect, if you will. And that’s exactly what the romantic comedy Alma gets all wrong. But let’s get to the story first.
An Argentine/Chilean co-production directed by Diego Rougier, Alma follows Fernando (Fernando Larraín), a dumb-looking, dull supermarket cashier married to Alma (Javiera Contador), a young, perky bipolar woman who can be quite charming yet also a pain in the neck. They’ve been together ever since their teen years, and while Alma still is madly in love, Fernando is sort of bored with her and fed up with her personality disorder. When she realizes he’s disenchanted, she immediately dumps him, kicks him off their home, gets off her meds, and embarks into a new single life.
Eventually, Alma will meet a good-looking Argentine man (Nicolás Cabré), apparently her new soul mate, and an affair will begin to blossom. Of course that’s when Fernando understands that Alma is the love of his life, so he’ll do whatever it takes to win her back. But in the meantime he’ll enjoy some single life experiences of his own. Guess what happens in the end.
Despite its highly formulaic nature, the huge problem in Alma is not that it’s predictable. That’s seldom a problem per se, least of all in romantic comedies. The trouble is, filmmaker Diego Rougier struggles too hard to infuse the film with supposedly hilarious moments left and right, all the actors act as funny as they can to the point of ludicrously overacting, each visual or verbal gag is spelled out, all the characters are roughly sketched out, comic timing is off-cue, and every single notion is absolutely derivative of Hollywood romantic comedies, but in the worst possible way. To top it all off, the lack of chemistry between the two leading actors is frankly off-putting.
As for Cabré, let’s say he’s a special guest star. Of course, his character does serve a purpose in the script, but that’s as far as it goes. He has little screen time and never reaches the status of a fleshed-out individual. So you can’t blame him for his acting.
And don’t get me started on the moronic jokes based on Alma’s bipolarity. I mean, bipolars don’t start dancing like crazy in manic states just because they drink alcohol at a party. That’s just too dumb. And they don’t fill walls with post-it notes reminding themselves of every single thing they have to do for the rest of their lives. They don’t suffer from amnesia.
And the idea of having Alma get off her meds so that she can be funny is just not funny. One more thing: there are a couple of, let’s say, sub-plots, which have no weight whatsoever in the picture. For that matter, the whole thing is weightless.
production notes
Alma (Argentina, Chile, 2015) Directed by Diego Rougier. Written by Diego Rougier, Rodrigo Vergara Tample. With Javiera Contador, Fernando Larraín, Nicolás Cabré. Cinematography: Antonio Quercia. Sound: Fernando Soldevila. Music: Camilo Salinas, Pablo Ilabaca. Running time: 97 min.
@pablsuarez
