Las oscuras primaveras (2014) Reviews

• Miserable folk have sex

  euroGary2015-07-11

  Despite it's not living up - for most of its running time - to the "contains explicit content" warning on the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015 website, I enjoyed 'Las Oscuras Primaveras' (English-language release title: 'The Obscure Spring'), a slow-moving Mexican film. Pina works in an office block as a tea lady (but no Mrs Overall she - actress Irene Azuela is very attractive). Working in the same block is Igor (José María Yazpik - a lived-in face but a powerful body). Both have humdrum home lives: she is a single mother living with her manipulative young son; he has a dowdy, nervous wife. They engage in a series of (disappointingly clothed) sexual encounters in the office block basement, but both baulk at the greater intimacy of a night at an hotel. The 'relationship' falters and they find different ways of compensating: Pina by throwing out her son's toys; Igor by buying a photocopier (no, really...) Azuela and Yazpik do a good job with their parts, creating believable, everyday people involved in unusual events. I like the fact that although there's much to feel sorry for in the characters - Pina's youth disappearing to the responsibilities of parenthood and Igor with his desperate-to-please but ultimately boring wife - both are also flawed. If you like kitchen sink dramas, this engrossing film is just right - and it contains a death scene of which 'Midsomer Murders' would be proud...

  More