Based on the Mexican television series of the same name, ‘The game of keys‘ was a project that did not look bad at all. Vincent Villanueva, at the controls, had already made three more than acceptable comedies at once: ‘Born to Win’, ‘Knock Knock’ and ‘Sevillanas de Brooklyn’. The script was signed by Martha Buchacaauthor of the libretto for the interesting ‘Litus’ (Dani de la Orden), based on her homonymous play and, above all, on her very singular approach to the subject of gender violence in the appreciable ‘Solo una vez’ ( Guillermo Rios Bordon).
The bad thing is that ‘The game of keys’ disappoints even more considering the worth (or, in any case, the job) of its top managers.
cauliflower and carrot
The thing is, above all and facing the gallery, the posters and the press books, to make a hodgepodge with classic foreign referencessuch as ‘Bob, Carol, Ted and Alice’ (Paul Mazursky), which no one has seen but everyone copies, and other more current and recognizable ones, such as ‘The Ice Storm’ (Ang Lee) or ‘Eyes wide shut’ (Stanley Kubrick), whose loans are anecdotal because there is no budget or talent for them to be done in another way.
But the absence of giant magic isn’t the problem either. Manuel Gómez Pereira, at the time of ‘Salsa rosa’ (1991), would have made this a funny spicy comedy. Here, on the contrary, not much to scratch: neither the characters are interesting, nor are their respective plots ingenious, nor does the bobbin lace of the couples hold any well-fitting surprises, nor does the battle between generations of women imply anything more than what it seems to mean. There are also practically no gags, even dialogue.
Along the lines of ‘Where two fit’ (Paco Caballero), of indigestible memory, we are facing an erotic comedy that does not eroticize, ignite or subjugate, that does not show, that does not teach, perhaps out of mischief, perhaps out of suspicion, who knows if due to an impossible aspiration to classical elegance, perhaps due to modesty towards lynching or questioning, which prefers to content itself with the performative: if I talk about it, it already seems to happen.
The bad thing is that it’s never the same because in terms of sex comedies cauliflowers should be cauliflowers and carrots, carrots. And the thing is, I’m afraid, to make a sexual comedy without showing a millimeter of skin, male or female, you have to have either a lot of talent, or a lot of cheek, and here the case is rather fear or laziness, the main obstacles to Let the humor flow with enough pressure. And although the whole is seen, squintingly, in Blake Edwards’ films and in MGM musicals, ‘The Game of the Keys’ is nothing more than one of Pedro Lazaga’s weak ones that would have received a few more snips than necessary .
‘The game of keys’ is not what it seems
Eva Ugarte compensates with sweetness and spontaneity the lack of chicha of his character; something that she already did in ‘García y García’ and that he will do in the even more unfortunate ‘Por los pelos’; that is, we like the girl but she doesn’t give a damn, and for now we forgive her but she hurts us. Look Ibarguren is wasted, after the torrent of humor that he showed in the wonderful ‘Mamá o papa’, here he is content with the minimum, it is too obvious that he wants to get involved a little.
Maria Castro she is continually out of place, in the spirit of miscasting of a summer night: neither she nor her character dare to do comedy and, since there is nothing else, the attempt remains just that, nothing. The pneumatics and pizpireta Justina Bustosas a young and striking Argentine temptation, complies with the margin, but neither she has enough screen time nor does her character have the weight she requires in the story.
The types, Fernando Guallar, Tamar Novas, Dani Tatay and Richard Farres (some of them -Novas- more than valid), form a uniform whole, a single monochrome register, as if they were only there to reply to their protagonist or wave the flag of the opportunistic turn quota. Nothing is what it seems and, therefore, this is not a comedy, much less an erotic comedy of swingers. If you rented it in a video store when you were twelve years old, one, or one, would have to juggle to get excited. Or resort to the memory of a reality that will always be much more daring and suggestive than what we see on screen.