Florian Zeller’s latest lays out a question, what makes a marriage last, Penelope Cruz’s character, Sofia, responds that only when something is treated as fragile is it taken care of, its when something is treated as stable is when it breaks. This could be used to describe the marriage within the story, the home for which they live in or even the divides that are created throughout this strangely structured film. Though with two great central performances from real life couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, Bunker tries to cram into the story many subjects and ideas that could each have been their own stories.
A married Spanish couple, along with their two daughters live in London, Miguel is an award winning architect and Sofia is a publisher. A sequence of events kick starts when the family’s neighbour breaks a hole in their back garden wall with the intention of putting in a window that looks directly onto and into their home. Miguel is offered a commission to design a bunker for a tech billionaire and Sofia makes a connection with a new author at work. Tensions run high with the neighbour and between the couple as their loyalty, trust and patience is brought into question, culminating in a dramatic climax.
Full review over at Filmhounds.