Bunker review – Cruz and Bardem just can’t dig Florian Zeller’s shallow thriller out of a hole

Venice film festival: An architect (Javier Bardem) alienates his book editor wife (Penélope Cruz) when he agrees to build a luxurious bunker for a tech billionaire 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, a drama without the intimate, authentic passion of his previous movies like The Father (2021) or The Son (2022). Bunker has nothing that interesting or original to say about its metaphorically showcased theme of alienation and inequality; the central relationship is left unexplored in favour of so-so home-invasion suspense styling – although one extended marital-argument scene showed what might have been achieved if their relationship was the film’s point – and the violent finale ending is outrageously glib, silly and unconvincing. An off-camera paramedic or doctor actually has to be heard explaining in a brief sentence afterwards what is supposed to have happened. Very lame. Continue reading...

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