Official Competition: Movie Review

Cast: Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Oscar Martinez
Directors: Mariano Cohn, Gaston Duprat

There should be sparkle in Official Competition, a movie about making movies which mocks the movies.

When a wealthy businessman (Jose Luis Gomez) turns 80, he finally reflects on his life, and wondering how people see him, he decides that rather than build a bridge that will stand for eternity, he'll commission a movie to be directed by Lola Cuevas (Cruz in an extremely big ginger crimped wig).

As she begins filming, Lola brings together two actors for her vision - but they (Banderas and Martinez) are polar opposites...

Official Competition purports to be a comedy, but it's a character-led piece that predominantly consists of the trio rehearsing and interacting. It may be that for more studious types, this kind of movie pokes fun at the art of movie-making, but it's not done at anything just above surface level and it never quite feels like it's essential.

A lot of the humour comes from Cruz's character's eccentricities but the fractious relationship that grows between Banderas and Martinez's characters also proves to be a driving force. But around the hour mark, the film starts to feel like it's run out of targets and that the satire it was hoping to be just doesn't have the bite it should have done.

Official Competition is reasonable enough fare, but it doesn't have the savagery for a spiky comedy, and it's more a light frothy film than a deep meaningful meditation on the movies and life in general.