the cinema of Alex de la Iglesia has always been marked by his tendency towards the comic. It is true that there are specific titles in which he was practically left aside, such as ‘The Oxford Murders’, but the most common is that he had a more or less strong presence. Interestingly, his last work until now that he was betting more directly on was ‘Perfect Strangers’, also the biggest commercial success of his entire career.
Now he is betting again on a pure comedy with ‘The fourth passenger’, a film with a premise that is quite reminiscent of ‘With whom you travel’, another Spanish production that went somewhat unnoticed last year. The result is a film that combines certain clichés and excess to shape a fun road movie in which Ernesto Alterio shines.
Very entertaining
‘The fourth passenger’ tells us about a road trip from Bilbao to Madrid, where from the first moment it is clear that the veteran owner of the car has long been in love with the young passenger with whom he has been sharing a journey for several months. Obviously, everything gets complicated and that’s where you appreciate that tendency to excess that complicates everything to the point of relating it -in a distant way, yes- with the great and never sufficiently recognized ‘Jo, what a night!’ by the concatenation of small misfortunes that happen to the protagonist played by Albert Saint John.
There it is true that ‘The fourth passenger’ never avoids the feeling that the point of arrival for the central plot of the film could not be more predictable. There is nothing necessarily bad about it -perhaps there is a key aspect that is a bit stale, but nothing too annoying-, because here the key is everything that happens along the journey, that being where the script works best than De la Iglesia signs with his usual collaborator Jorge Guerricaechevarria.
It soon becomes clear that ‘The Fourth Passenger’ has two destabilizing factors, but each with a different function. On the one hand, Rubén Cortada is the one who complicates the most romantic side of the show -and also the least interesting-, while Alterio is in charge of turning an a priori routine trip into a delirious experience.
That is clear from the first moment in which he gets into the Volvo that the character of San Juan drives and does not stop going to more as the minutes go by, with Alterio getting the public to love a hopeless flirt capable of beguiling anyone who crosses his path. Well, as long as he puts his mind to it and doesn’t act like a complete asshole.
I am very clear thatThe experience that each viewer has with ‘The fourth passenger’ is going to be very marked by the reaction that this character provokes, since initially it is easy to recognize in him attitudes of people capable of getting on anyone’s nerves. The key is that it does not limit itself to provoking rejection in the public and that is where Alterio’s interpretation is key, not so much to believe what is happening -there comes a point where plausibility is neither present nor expected- but so that Let’s enjoy how much fun it is.
Other details about ‘The fourth passenger’
This also helps the great counterpoint that the character of Saint John supposes, a man with a square attitude who is even criticized for his inability to improvise in any situation. That leads to his interpretation perhaps being at least lucid to the naked eye, but at the moment of truth it is almost as essential as Alterio’s to keep everything on wheels.
For its part, Ruben Cortada and Blanca Suarez They don’t stand out that much, but they do more than fulfill what the film requires of them, especially during a final stretch that completely embraces the crazy during an unforgettable traffic jam in which De la Iglesia deals better than usual with his tendency to lose control of the situation during the last acts of his film. How recent we still have the disastrous end of ‘Veneciafrenia’.
In addition, the director of ‘Muertos de risa’, still his best film, seems quite comfortable here balancing fun, with a slightly lighter tendency towards black comedy than in other De la Iglsia works, with tension, which gains in importance with the successive appearances of regular actors in his work as Enrique Villén, Jaime Ordóñez or Carlos Areces. Incidentally, this adds a little more spice to the central story without affecting the rhythm, quite fluid for what is usual in his cinema.
All of this leads to ‘The Fourth Passenger’ being a fairly accessible film with a universal touch that makes it easier for Spain on this occasion to export a product that lends itself to remakes in other cinematographies instead of adapting successful products here in other countries. Of course, De la Iglesia does not forget to take material like this to his field to offer a film that perhaps does not have the same ceiling as other works of his, but in exchange, control is never lost, not even in its crazy ending.
In short
‘The fourth passenger’ is Álex de la Iglesia’s best film since ‘Sad Trumpet Ballad’. I am aware that the latter has great detractors, but it has always fascinated me, especially because of the great visual strength of its images. Since then, his movies had left me somewhat cold, with the exception of the great start of ‘The Witches of Zugarramurdi’ and the amusing lack of control of ‘Mi gran noche’, but the one that concerns us now is just as funny or more and has a greater consistency .