The film „Under Therapy”, directed by Gerard Herrero, had its world premiere in March 2023, and in Poland only a bit over a week ago. But it was definitely worth to wait! And not only because it is another Spanish film that can be seen in Polish cinemas in just a month. A month ago, as part of the Sopot Film Festival, we were able to see „The Girls are Alright”, and the thriller „Upon Entry” is still shown in cinemas.
As we can learn from the description advertising the film and also from the Polish title (in Polish it’s: „Therapy for Couples”), it tells the story of three couples who have just gone for therapy. On arrival, it turns out that it will be group therapy without … psychoterapist. However, she had left pre-prepared instructions for the participants on how this meeting should go.
Of course, in this situation everyone could have opted out of this forced group therapy and the film would not have been made…. But fortunately they stayed! 🙂
The film is based on a very interesting script. A lot of heavy and difficult topics are touched upon, but it is done with the typical naturalness and lightness of Spanish cinema (my subjunctive opinion based on many films from the Iberian Peninsula). The themes flow seamlessly, with the six protagonists exchanging opinions, discussing and giving expert advice (after all, who can better solve our problems than the person who …. cannot solve his own)?
The film has been compared to another film, originally made in Italy, ‘Perfect Strangers” (directed by Paolo Genovese). However, I don’t entirely agree with this. What these films have in common is certainly the fact that the action takes place in one room (but so does Roman Polanski’s excellent „Carnage” or Jiří Havelka’s „Vlastníci”. Secrets that come to light in the course of the film? I guess that’s how you could describe almost any plot. „Under Therapy”’s plot is slightly different, and the protagonists know from the start (as soon as they read the first message from the absent psychotherapist) that they will have to talk about themselves and their problems. And the ending in this Gerard Herrero’s film is so surprising that I felt like watching the film again straight away (having already had the knowledge I didn’t have at the beginning of the film).
If I were to compare this film to another, I think the closest thing it has to a comparison is „Tok, tok”, directed by Vicente Villanueva. It tells the story of 6 patients who come to see a doctor to be cured of their ‘eccentricities’. The doctor doesn’t turn up and they start talking. Apart from this general outline of the plot and the fact that we can watch Alexandra Jiménez in both films, the films tell different stories and leave us with different thoughts.
In addition to the aforementioned Alexandra Jiménez, in the film „Under Therapy” we will see equally great and natural: Malena Alterio, Eva Ugarte, Fele Martínez, Antonio Pagudo and Juan Carlos Vellido (who was nominated to Goya Award for this role).
I was very impressed by this film and it is still stays in my head. I think it could be a great option for one of the first dates. A natural conversation about what we saw on screen can tell us a lot about the other person and see if we think alike on important issues.
Plan a visit to the cinema, as often such interesting films disappear quickly (unfortunately) from the repertoire!
Enjoy the screening!
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