Film Review: The Good Boss
Images courtesy of Sharmill Films.
Fernando León de Aranoa’s The Good Boss is one hell of a corporate satire. It tells the story of a scale manufacturer Blanco (Javier Bardem) as he prepares for an inspection by an organisation visiting local businesses and awarding the very best. However, several events threaten him from receiving this award, including a disgruntled ex-employee who is camped outside his factory demanding the reinstatement of his employment, his business partner’s personal troubles when his wife is having an affair with an employee at the factory, the troubled son of a longtime employee of Blanco’s, and an intern he is infatuated with.
Throughout the film, Bardem insists that things need to be perfectly balanced. However, it’s very clear through his actions that things must always be balanced in his favour. There is a brilliant metaphor later in the film where the scales outside the factory stubbornly refuse to balance, until Bardem gets his security guard to tape a bullet underneath the scales. Once he does this, they are perfect. This metaphor perfectly encapsulates the film’s themes and pitch black sense of humour simultaneously.
This film would not be the same without Javier Bardem. Very different from his typically menacing roles as villains in American films, Bardem embodies a very different kind of evil in this film. Although he is manipulative and calculating, it’s hilarious to watch him as he attempts to deal with the confluence of these events and how they spiral out of control. When watching The Good Boss, it’s difficult to believe he could embody the chaotic menace of Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men so well, or Silva in Skyfall, but Bardem’s facial expressions, comic timing and delivery are a delight and cement his status as one of the best actors working today. He has the quiet confidence to be funny without trying too hard and it works very well with the film’s realistic brand of humour.
The Good Boss works very well as a corporate satire, with biting insights into how powerful people manipulate those around them in order to maintain said power, but it wouldn’t be the same without the central performance from Javier Bardem, who makes the film endlessly watchable and entertaining.
Follow Scott on Letterboxd.
The Good Boss is screening in cinemas nationwide from Thursday 14th of April. For tickets and more info, click here.