‘The fourth passenger’: Álex de la Iglesia sets off the shared car time bomb

Two years after the broadcast of the wonderful first season of 30 coins, just six months after the premiere in cinemas of the discreet Venicephrenia, already a few months after the landing in 2023 of the second season of the series on Catholicism, evil and the chronicles of a people (30 coins), Álex de la Iglesia has a new movie on the billboard: The fourth passenger wild romantic comedy with structure of road movies, of unequal grace and debatable distribution. The director’s ability to work The day of the beast and the community, with Jorge Guerricaechevarría as a regular co-writer, it is commendable. His creativity, however, is shown to be disparate in a work that is unequivocally his, both in his concerns and in his style.

The gushing cinema of De la Iglesia, unbalanced, procacious and audacious, the one that bursts into a microcosm formed by opposing characters with personal particularities close to disturbance, but always starting from a recognizable costumbrismo, appears once again in The fourth passenger the trip through a shared vehicle service of four very different characters, although only three of them have an interest. And here is one of the first problems of the film: the role of Rubén Cortada —which, in any case, offers a correct interpretation with the little he has at his disposal— only seems to be there as a reason to trigger the jealousy of the protagonist played by Alberto San Juan. For the rest, it is as if he passed by there; as if the handsome could only be handsome and nothing more. Except for a touch of selfishness without much relevance in the final part, nothing contributes. And that in a story with only four characters stuck in a car three quarters of the footage is a hindrance.

The control-obsessed middle-aged man, addicted to rehearsal for each of the facets of his life, lonely, prefabricated by himself and oblivious to any form of spontaneity in his daily life, is indeed a character with possibilities. Also the cheeky careerist, Spanish mischievous with posh gestures, playful and unbearable for anyone with half a brain, to which Ernesto Alterio puts a face. But with them something amazing happens. Alberto San Juan, who plays the former, seems out of focus. Saint John comes from displaying a spectacular grace in Sentimental and in The test, two of his latest works in comedy, playing the role of clown who messes everything up without having to become an actor. With a brilliant modulation of voice and gesture, and almost without raising an eyebrow, that role of the classic august jester, conniving, provocative and absurd, seems perfect for him. On the other hand the clown who interprets in The fourth passenger the white clown, object of the jokes of the august Alterio, representative of the adult and the straight compared to the trickster, leaves him gloomy.

Film about loneliness and isolation in the era of social networks, light reflection on the economic crisis and scattered comedy, the fourth passenger stumbles forward to the usual ending of de la Iglesia stories: a fireworks volcano full of physicality and action. There are occasional brilliant moments and others that are shoehorned in, without any internal coherence (the hotel and the pool as a paradigm). But finally what works best is the romantic element, the desolate and bloody look of San Juan and Blanca Suarez in the nightmare of the road, the trip in the worst company and the triumph of impudence. Hell is always the others.