One
of the key components in speculative fiction is imagining various potential
futures based on the current state of the world. In her new film,
Yesterday Never Ends, Spanish writer-director Isabel Coixet’s
(Map of the Sounds of Tokyo) takes the current economic
crisis in her native country and extends it by a decade, out into the year
2017. In this iteration, the crisis worsens, taking the entire country down
with it. Unemployment is at seven million, civil unrest runs rampant in the
streets, fiscal cut backs hamstring every social service, and the government is
powerless to do a damn thing about any of it.
Into
this not-quite-dystopian frame Coixet drops two people. Jaime (Javier Camara,
Bad Education) and Christina (Candela Pena, All
About My Mother) are the only two people in the entire movie, aside
from a couple of faceless news reporters in the opening moments. This is a bold
move, and if you’re going to have a 90-minute feature with only two people, you
better have some serious confidence in your material.
In
the case of Yesterday Never Ends, this choice is a double-edged
sword, and while the fact that you only ever meet two people makes the film
unique, it also causes it to stumble. At its best the film is a poignant
meditation on loss, pain, depression, and attempts to escape the traps of your
past. At its worst, this is a portrait of a bitter former couple bickering,
arguing, and doing their best to injure one another as grievously as they
possibly can.
Through
the interactions between Jaime and Christina, waiting for someone who it’s
clear early on is never going to arrive, Coixet peels back layer after layer of
their story through subtext-laden dialogue. The initial pleasantries of
estranged lovers who haven’t seen each other in five years, give gradual way to
hidden resentments as the scabs of still fresh wounds are scratched off. A
college professor, Jaime left Spain, and Christina, and headed Germany for
economic reasons, as well as to escape the tragic death of their child. While Jaime
moves on, physically if not emotionally, Christina remains, wallowing in the
pain of their tragedy.
Though
this is a very specific, very contained story of two people, the exterior world
seeps in and colors the narrative. Their son, Dani, died because hospital
budgets were slashed to the point where, by the time he saw a doctor after
waiting for five hours, it was too late. In fact, the entire reason for Jaime’s
return to Spain is because the cemetery where the boy is interred is being dug
up so the land can be used to build a casino. Jaime’s reaction to these
political and economic realities is to evade and avoid. Christina however takes
another tack. Grief awakes a radical spirit in the former translator. She lives
in her car or squats, and the implication is that she’s a part of the bombing
campaigns alluded to in the opening of the film.
For
all of the engaging, admirable moments, Yesterday Never Ends
is wildly uneven. The harried, exhaursted performances from Pena and Camara are
fantastic. Their chemistry—totally believable as embattled exes—and the secrets
they keep from each other, are what keep you invested, and what propels a movie
that is, unavoidably, hamstrung at the outset.
While
it bears some of the hallmarks of the genre, Yesterday Never
Ends isn’t exactly science fiction in a traditional sense—though it
did have its North American premiere as part of the Seattle International FilmFestival’s “Sci-Fi and Fact” program. Sure, it shows one potential outcome of
the present, but this is much more concerned with the relationship, or lack
thereof, between Christina and Jaime. The exterior world is secondary, and you
often forget that this is supposed to be set in the future. While you don’t,
and shouldn’t, rely on movies and filmmakers to offer iron clad solutions,
walking away from Yesterday Never Ends—a film that seeks to
reveal issues rather than solve—you’re left wondering what’s the ultimate
point?
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