Mouth to Mouth

1995 Spanish film starring Javier Bardem. Usually I find Spanish and Mexican comedies a bit too broad and loud but this one didn't get too bad.

He stars as Victor, a struggling actor. His agent keeps promising him auditions, and there is a big one down the road, but Victor can barely make ends meet. He delivers a pizza to a phone sex office, and eventually ends up working there to tide things over until, he hopes, he can pass the audition and get a good acting job in a Hollywood movie.

While doing his new job, which involves chatting up men as well as women, he impresses "Bill" with his smooth talk. Bill (Joseph Maria Flotats) is a closeted gay but married. Later, another client, Amanda (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), calls and also is impressed with Victor, so much so that somehow she finds out where he lives and they have a tryst. She confesses she is married to "Bill" in a loveless marriage and cannot escape. Victor is taken with her and agrees to help by being in flagrante with Bill so she can get a divorce. But, Victor finds out things are more complicated than that as the mastermind behind this ruse is not really Amanda at all.


There are many layers to this comedy/drama, as Victor continues to pursue his acting career, while still managing the love triangle and scheme he is involved in. It didn't get too crazy with its plot, even though it continually adds on the surprises as who was behind all this was revealed once and then revealed to be someone else, several times. At first I thought it was kind of cruel for Victor and Amanda to trap Bill but the film made it out less tragic for Bill as it treated the situations more for comedy than tragedy/drama. There are quite a lot of supporting but minor characters, and the story keeps building with more twists but it does kind of tie up everything with a feel good ending.  The character of the gay husband Bill, who I thought was a minor character not to be seen after the first couple scenes, became a more emotional focus and less of a stereotypical role/character as the film went on and we saw more of him. Bardem was not bad at all in his role and you can see even early on in his career, his charisma and acting ability.