Bunker

This is more than just a marital drama. Bunker is broader and more ambitious in scope than Zeller’s previous two pictures; it’s also more emphatic and forthright in its messaging.

In positioning Bardem as a more central figure in the story than Cruz, Bunker excels far more with its chronicle of a man’s succumbing to the individualistic pressures of the world, rather than a couple’s contrasting responses to potential fears of the future.

If anything, the film’s greatest fault lies in indecision, in its less-than-successful toggling between two modes it can never quite mesh. Going more satirical or more theatrical might actually bring greater balance, allowing Zeller to more fully explore the career questions lurking beneath his story.

Strangely, it’s a film which bungles any elegant rumination on its subtexts by both talking too much but saying too little.

There are more than a few great filmmakers working today with the ability to make this kind of material sing, but I sense Zeller’s talents lie elsewhere.

Veering between satire and psychological thriller, Bunker doesn’t really satisfy in either arena. While it’s occasionally funny – a scene with fog cannons is very amusing – it’s never enough to power you through.

Even the formidable pairing of Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem can’t save this new movie from writer-director Florian Zeller – his first created directly for the screen, and not adapted from his own stage original. It’s shallow and unsatisfying.