The Other Way Around [2024]

 The Other Way Around is a break-up dramedy with an idiosyncratic twist. The striking and assured Ale (Itsaso Arana), an indie filmmaker, and Alex (Vito Sanz), an easy-going actor of middling success who’s collaborated regularly with Ale, have decided to end their relationship, for reasons not shared, after having been a long-standing couple. Not only do they continue to be on amicable terms, barring the odd disagreements, while planning their separation – scouting apartments for one of them to shift, dividing up their books and DVDs, informing their friends, colleagues, neighbour, English tutor and even plumber, etc. – they even decide to throw a party to celebrate their break-up, which was once jocularly suggested by Ale’s philosophically-inclined father (played with deadpan touch by director Jonás Trueba’s real-life father Fernando Trueba). As they go about inviting people, they’re met with varying degrees of befuddled reactions, all the while convinced that they’ll eventually get back together. While a carefree, light-hearted, droll and low-key work in every sense, it had a few quirky elements at play underneath the surface. For one, it’s impishly self-reflexive as it obliquely cited Classic Hollywood movies about divorced couples getting back together, while also cheekily referencing Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre and his complicated relationship with Liv Ullmann. Further, it’s also a casually understated exercise in postmodernism as, amusingly, Ale has just completed an offbeat film on a similar subject starring Alex. Shot with a breezy air in Madrid, and featuring engaging turns by the two leads, its most self-consciously funny moment involved intellectuals debating whether Ale has made a “linear” or “circular” film – i.e. a plot-driven work or one of ideas – which could easily be extended to Trueba’s work too.

Director: Jonas Trueba

Genre: Comedy/Marital Comedy

Language: Spanish

Country: Spain