Miren Ibarguren’s comedic side stands out in this entanglement of forty-year-olds fed up with their marriages, who play swingers to bring excitement to their lives
Billy Wilder argued that Ernst Lubitsch “was able to suggest more through a closed door than other directors with their fly open.” Bringing up these two masters of comedy may be excessive when analyzing ‘The Game of Keys’, which only aspires to quickly go through the rooms to swell the catalog of some platform. The viewer who sits on the sofa with the mobile in his hand will see until the end the fifth feature film by Vicente Villanueva, who has always moved at ease in the romantic comedy with a spicy point, from his first shorts (‘The future is in porn’, ‘Mariquita con perro’) to feature films such as ‘The opposite of love’ and ‘Toc Toc’. They are all handsome, they are hot and they take off their clothes at the first change in ‘The game of keys’. And the Valencia where the action takes place, with designer flats and trendy restaurants, contributes to giving a patina of sophistication to a plot more seen than the comic, which is sustained thanks to its actors.
How many movies submerge dozens of married couples sunk in routine into vertigo, who dare to swap partners? This is what happens to the characters played by Eva Ugarte, María Castro and Miren Ibarguren, who for different reasons miss emotion and good sex in their respective relationships. The reunion with an old high school classmate (Fernando Guallar), involved with a very young influencer (Justina Bustos), will unleash the uproar in their bedrooms. Any game that involves intimacy is dangerous, and throwing the keys into a container and then choosing one at random and sleeping with its owner unleashes jealousy, envy and frustration. In memory, the wonderful ‘Perfect strangers’ by Álex de la Iglesia, in which four couples who have known each other for a lifetime played to read the messages aloud and publicly answer the calls they received on their mobiles during a dinner.
‘The game of the keys’ joins other recent Spanish comedies that address new forms of sexuality through humor, such as ‘Kiki, love is made’, by Paco León, and ‘Polyamory for beginners’, by Fernando Colomo. These characters on the brink of forty are already experiencing the tedium of marriage with children, professional frustration and a lack of courage when it comes to choosing their bedfellows. Villanueva is not committed to costumbrismo, but to a tone halfway between the morbid and the lewd. “Honey, my jaw is numb,” one of the characters blurts out as he performs fellatio on his distracted spouse under the covers. “Do you want to try another little thing that will taste like the sea?” asks Miren Ibarguren, whose comedic vision is so powerful that it makes any script line good. The funny thing, however, does not prevail, it is a tape that pretends to be modern, in which they tell each other confidences in the luxury gym and they drink beers at the bar.
Dani Tatay in ‘The Game of Keys’.
There is no need to be frightened. ‘The Game of Keys’ ends with a wedding and one of its protagonists pregnant, after a sequence in an ‘Eyes Wide Shut’-style orgy that is more chaste than a German tabletop TV movie. In between, a succession of songs that don’t stop, including a performance by Mikel Erentxun and his ‘I can’t help it (think of you)’. It is proof of who this Atresmedia comedy is for, of which Warner is launching 300 copies. Characters like the millennial queen of Instagram or the Romanian governess practicing sadomaso are not enough to raise the vaudeville, which gets bogged down when it comes to footage. ‘The Game of Keys’ is based on a Mexican TV series of the same name that is broadcast by Amazon Prime Video. Its Spanish remake perfectly exemplifies the movie model that platforms crave: light, beautiful and harmless.
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