THE BOSS (Jaime Escallon-Buraglia). 95 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (June 22). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: N
Nothing wears one down quite so much as bad farce.
And The Boss, a Colombia-Argentina-Canada co-production written and directed by Jaime Escallon-Buraglia, is pretty bad – a messy, jumbled affair about a Colombian human resources manager (Carlos Hurtado) trying to solve various problems at work while banging the best friend (Katherine Porto) of his long-suffering wife (Marcela Benjumea).
Escallon-Buraglia, who started out as an NFB documentarian, never gets a handle on the comedic tone (or, for that matter, the mechanics of the convoluted plot) and can’t decide whether his weaselly protagonist should be sympathetic or despicable. He does love covering him with shit and vomit, though.
The film’s biggest joke is on Telefilm, whose contribution to The Boss’s budget is likely the only reason it’s opening here at all. Given that all we get for the agency’s efforts are throwaway mentions of U of T and the University of Montreal, I hope someone kept the receipt.
