By Josh Bate
Javier Bardem burst onto the scene in the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men, a film that catapulted the Spanish into stardom and earned him a well-deserved Academy Award. Since then, Bardem has often been typecast in similar roles that show off his ability to play menacing, unnerving, and sometimes downright frightening characters. Bardem adds complexity to his trademark menace in The Beloved, a film about a fractured relationship between a father and daughter, and the complicated emotions that come with attempting to repair a relationship after years of resentment, regret, and absence.
Making its North American premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, The Beloved follows Esteban Martinez, an acclaimed Spanish director who recruits his daughter, Emilia (Victoria Luengo), for a starring role in his latest project. This isn’t an entirely amicable team-up, however, as the duo have a complicated, if almost nonexistent, relationship. Esteban left Emilia when she was very young, and is now reuniting with her for the first time in 13 years. What could have been an exciting professional opportunity instead becomes an uncomfortable reunion between two people who have plenty of history, but very little relationship left to speak of.
Although deceptively suave and mild-mannered at first, Bardem’s Esteban shows many of the same traits of his most harrowing antagonists, albeit in a more realistic and restrained manner. He isn’t necessarily the larger-than-life villain audiences may be accustomed to seeing Bardem play; instead, Esteban is a man who has clearly hurt the people around him, yet he doesn’t necessarily view himself as the monster that others may see him as.
Bardem’s character is one that many will watch and feel as if they have someone in their lives just like him (i.e., a man who claims to have changed, shows a degree of regret for his actions, but offers plenty of hints that he’s still the same person underneath). That makes Esteban especially difficult to pin down. There are moments where it is easy to sympathize with him and believe that he genuinely wants to make amends with Emilia, only for a subsequent moment to reveal the same arrogance, selfishness, or controlling tendencies that helped destroy their relationship in the first place still remain.
Naturally, Esteban is an incredibly complex character as a result, and Bardem does an excellent job with his portrayal. The regret that Esteban feels is communicated through Bardem’s facial expressions and body language alone, as are his less desirable traits. He doesn’t need to deliver a lengthy monologue explaining what Esteban is thinking or feeling. Instead, the performance often relies on subtle glances, pauses, and physical reactions that tell the audience everything they need to know.
It all adds up to create a character that is as captivating as he is dislikable, yet someone that the audience still hopes will make amends with his daughter. That is perhaps the most impressive aspect of Bardem’s performance. Esteban is not particularly easy to like, but Bardem makes it difficult to completely write him off, either. There is always the sense that there might be something worth salvaging, even if the film continually reminds us of just how much damage has already been done.
The relationship between Esteban and Emilia is similarly compelling as The Beloved doesn’t attempt to manufacture an immediate connection between them. These are two people who have spent more than a decade apart, and the film understands that simply putting them in the same room isn’t enough to erase everything that happened before. Their wounds are still very much present, and there is no easy way for either character to move past them.
Those hoping for a story that truly moves the needle when it comes to a relationship between an estranged parent and adult child may end up disappointed, however. The bond between father and daughter doesn’t grow overnight in this film, nor do their collective wounds heal during this time, either. There are no convenient revelations or sudden emotional breakthroughs that completely change the dynamic between the two. That may be frustrating for audiences looking for a happy ending, but The Beloved is clearly not interested in giving the viewer what they may want. Instead, the film takes its time examining the awkwardness of two people who are attempting to reconnect after so much time apart. At its best, this approach makes the relationship feel authentic. Esteban can say that he regrets what he has done, but that doesn’t mean Emilia is suddenly going to forgive him. Likewise, Emilia may want some form of closure, but that doesn’t mean she is ready to let her father back into her life.
The film’s minimalist approach also extends to its overall storytelling. Rather than relying on major dramatic developments to keep the audience invested, The Beloved spends much of its runtime observing these characters and allowing their relationship to unfold at its own pace during the increasingly tense production of Esteban’s new movie in the Spanish desert. There is certainly something admirable about this decision, particularly because it prevents the story from feeling overly manufactured. Unfortunately, the same approach that makes portions of the film feel authentic also contributes to its biggest problem.
Many of the films that opt for this approach are often held to in and around the 90-minute mark. The Beloved, however, extends far beyond that, so much so that the film’s length can truly be felt, especially towards the end. What initially feels like a deliberate decision to allow the characters and their relationship to breathe eventually begins to feel repetitive. The story drags on far longer than it needs to, even as it becomes increasingly clear that there is to be no resolution to the broader parental conflict. What could have been a tightly constructed examination of regret, parenthood, and the complicated relationship between a father and daughter instead begins to operate like a story that struggles to determine when it has said everything it needs to say. By the time the credits roll, audiences may find themselves appreciating what The Beloved was attempting to accomplish while simultaneously wishing it had gotten there a little faster.
VERDICT: 6/10
Javier Bardem takes on a different, more subtle kind of antagonistic role in The Beloved, a Spanish-language film that centers on a filmmaker who casts his estranged daughter in his upcoming project. Making its North American premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s film is, at times, heartfelt and compelling, especially when it focuses on Bardem’s portrayal of a deeply complicated father who wants to make amends but may not have changed as much as he claims. The relationship between Bardem’s Esteban and his daughter Emilia, played with similar understated emotion by Victoria Luengo, is handled with a refreshing degree of restraint, allowing their wounds to feel authentic rather than manufactured for dramatic effect. However, The Beloved suffers from a bloated runtime that may lead the film’s audience to feel fatigued by its story, particularly as it becomes increasingly clear that the film is in no rush to deliver the resolution viewers may be hoping for.
The Beloved made its North American premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).