Review of ‘A Commonplace’: A character film, an actress film

The filmmaker Celia Giraldoone of the directors of the collective film ‘The daughter of someone‘ (2019) and director of some chapters of the series ‘This is not Sweden‘ (2023), makes his solo feature film debut with ‘A common place‘, a comedy-drama about the personal cataclysm of a 52 year old nursing assistant (Eva Llorach) who is forced to take early retirement. Giraldo’s film is a character film, as well as an actress film. The director, who wrote the script with Bianca Lucia Franceza, knows the protagonist of her story well and feels a sincere affection for her, which does not mean that she is not questioned at times.

The writing of Pilar, the protagonist, is precise and beautiful. It is told with few elements but a lot of lucidity, and Giraldo finds a magnificent accomplice in Eva Llorach when it comes to composing That woman who cares, who doesn’t feel loved and, more importantly, who no one seems to realize is a force of nature about to explode.. Llorach, as usual, is great in that mix of vulnerability and contained rage. Also in the moments when Pilar explodes. This is another of the strong points of ‘Un lugar comunes’, the determination with which Giraldo expresses these outbursts without being afraid of humor, of bordering on darkness. (the magnificent elevator scene) or even to nonsense and extravagance (the musical moment and its unexpected drift).