There’s nothing inherently funny in four guys demonstrating their mourning of a deceased mate by drinking his ashes mixed with vodka and orange; a dispirited wife and mother repeatedly chucking the lunch she’s prepared onto the garden; or her husband trying to revive their passion-less relationship after visiting a hooker.
Yet we’re expected to see some humour, however black, in these highly contrived situations in Spanish writer-director Tom Fernandez’s debut feature Suso’s Tower.
A TV comedy scripter, Fernandez serves up a weird concoction which tackles issues like mateship, family, failure and success, with an oddball collection of characters but without much credibility or charm.
In the opening voice-over, the unseen Suso, who died from a drug overdose, speaks from the grave as his friends gather for the funeral. There’s Cundo (Javier Camara), who returns home after 10 years in Argentina, where he supposedly runs two pizzerias and announces, to the surprise of his parents, Tino (Emilio Gutierrez Caba) and Mercedes (Mariana Cordero), that he has a six-months-old daughter. Fernando (Gonzalo de Castro) is married to Cundo's former girlfriend Rosa (Fanny Gautier) who, Fernando suspects, still has the hots for Cundo. Pablo (Jose Luis Alcobendas) is a cattle farmer who dates a prostitute, one of whose clients is Mote (Cesar Vea).
Cundo’s parents barely speak to each other, his mother calls him a 'retard,’ and his father seeks solace in the whorehouse. It’s soon clear that Cundo isn’t the success he claims to be back in Argentina after he renews acquaintance with the spunky Marta (Malena Alterio), to whom she lost her virginity years ago, not that the perpetually forgetful fellow remembers it. After Cundo finds drawings of towers left by Suso, he decides to build a seven-metre high wooden tower in memory of his dead friend.
His mates understandably can’t see the point of his exercise, tensions boil over, they fight, make up, and start erecting the tower. The rudimentary structure, I suppose, is meant to be a metaphor for these 40-year-old adolescent males finally growing up and finding a purpose in life. But the whole thing isn’t very convincing or amusing. Extras include a 'Making of’ featurette with interviews with the director and key cast.
