J Paul Johnson
Having not too long ago retired from one long career and finding myself in the midst of this “second act” at Film Obsessive, I’m more than a little sympathetic to the protagonist of Martinez, the debut feature written and directed by Lorena Padilla and premiering at the Miami International Film Festival this week. He too is confronting that moment when it’s time, perhaps, to leave a gig one’s known for decades, to open up some new doors, maybe even to embrace the unknown. Martinez addresses the foibles of aging and loneliness with gentle humor and a distinct style, making for an impressive feature debut with a memorable protagonist.
Chilean actor Francisco Reyes—of the acclaimed Academy Award-winning A Fantastic Woman—stars in the title role of Martínez, a lonely old grump whose accountancy work is characterized by rote number-crunching and paper-filing. A daily routine of laps in the swim pool and nighttime reading keeps him physically fit and intellectually curious, but it’s clear his social life is lacking. His only communications are with his workplace colleagues, the gym attendant, his landlady, and with his unseen downstairs neighbor, whose perpetual loud-volume television is a constant annoyance Martinez addresses by yelling and pounding on his floor.
Two conflicts emerge for Martinez, who gives the impression he’d be generally content with his mundane existence for all of perpetuity. At work, he finds himself suddenly confronted by his eventual replacement, Pablo (Humberto Busto), now working alongside him. Suddenly, Martinez’s workday is complicated by his having to train his glibly overconfident tech-enamored younger colleague, all the while evaluating the new hire’s progress for his boss Conchita (Martha Claudia Moreno), a woman who is all too eager for an emotional connection in the workplace she’ll never make with the distant Martinez.
The other conflict takes place back at Martinez’s apartment, where he learns the cause of that infernal television racket: his downstairs neighbor, a woman about his age he’d never met in person, has been dead for days. In her apartment her landlord found a little gift for Martinez, who finds it both welcome and perplexing. Now curious, he starts something of a benign investigation into her life, trying to make sense of her highly-personal assortment of curios, letters, and photographs.
At the office, Martinez begins, even, to speak of the dead woman. The more he learns about her, the more he speaks of her, confusing his co-workers, who begin to believe the old man has a new girlfriend. Curiously, the woman’s death, coupled with Martinez’s own impending retirement, brings him to an epiphany, one that results in a series of surprising life choices.
As one might guess, the film’s tone strikes a gentle balance between pensive drama and low-key comedy. For some, Martinez might not present enough of either: its dramatic stakes and payoff are gentle, its comedic moments subtle. But Padilla is not aiming for a simple geezer-snort Grumpy Old Men or geriatric-weepie On Golden Pond. Martinez simply stakes out its terrain as that moment where we decide, really, who we are, outside of the work identities that define us for decades, and does so with a singular style and panache all its own.
That’s not all Martinez has going for it. Shot in the city of Guadalajara, and elegantly lensed by Gerardo Guerra (whose remarkable cinematography was well on display, if in a more documentary style, in last year’s Dos Estaciones), Martínez‘s visual style is acute, seemingly effortlessly underscoring Padilla’s themes with a mise-en-scène that highlights its protagonist’s isolation, loneliness, and discomfort.
The cast relies a great deal on Busto and Claudia Moreno in their supporting roles, and both enrich their characters with a fulsome set of quirks and eccentricities. Both serve as foils to the buttoned-up reserve of the protagonist, but neither is reduced solely to a plot point. Over time, each comes to develop, at least a little. It is Reyes, though, who leads the way. The actor simply cannot help but exude charm, even when his character is a milquetoast accountant whose most interesting trait is the unwavering discipline of his daily regimen. A silver fox whether dressed for the office in coat and tie or the gym in a snappy ‘das tracksuit, Reyes is almost too damned good looking for the role. It’s frankly hard to imagine his Martinez being as isolated and lonely as the film’s plot presents. One would think an able-bodied, reasonably athletic, well-read, and gainfully employed senior citizen with Reyes’ looks would not lack for companionship.
Well, if the most serious complaint one might lodge against Martinez is that its star is too damned handsome for the character, it’s a complaint as old as cinema and apropos of a thousand films from the days of Lillian Gish and on. Like a few other recent films from Mexico, Martinez takes the generational conflicts faced by those more senior than most cinematic protagonists and treats them seriously—if also comedically. Padilla’s directorial debut makes sense of its protagonist in ways that show retirement, when it beckons, need not be the end. It can, indeed, be a new beginning.
Alquimia Cinematográfica and Luxbox present Martínez, written and directed by Lorena Padilla and starring Francisco Reyes. Mexico, 2023, 93 min. In Spanish with English subtitles.
