Jaime Lorente debuts as director with 'El mal hijo', a rural Murcia family drama out in cinemas
Actor Jaime Lorente makes his feature directing debut with El mal hijo, adapted from Salvador S. Molina's novel, which opens in Spanish cinemas on Friday, 16 October. Reviews are mixed, with critics praising the performances and questioning the film's abrupt shift in tone.
Five years to the screen
Lorente has tried to direct his first feature for five or six years, and El mal hijo is the fourth script his team has attempted to bring to the screen, he told La Razón. The film adapts only the first part of Salvador S. Molina's novel, while the second part, which follows the adult Rubén, is fiction, Lorente said. He shot for six weeks in Murcia, his home region, because he wanted a piece of his homeland in the picture, as he told La Vanguardia. The film took part in the New Directors section at the most recent San Sebastián festival, and Lorente said he had long hoped to premiere it there.
The story
An eleven-year-old boy named Rubén lives with his grandmother in rural Murcia after his drug-addicted father drops out of his life. The first part is a family drama seen mostly through the child's eyes, centred on a father who is unreliable and averse to responsibility. The second part is a thriller set years later, when the grandmother has dementia, Simón looks after her, and the family owes money to an exploitative uncle, Juanji. Lorente said addiction drives the story less as an illness than through what it does to the people around it, especially the grandmother. The film is dedicated to Lorente's own grandmothers, who have already passed away.
I believe the purest love lives in the grandmothers of the world.
The cast includes Miguel Ángel Puro, Susi Sánchez, Hugo Arbués and Óscar de la Fuente, and the film runs 106 minutes. Its first half was shot on 16mm and its second half on 35mm, a change that El Periódico links to the protagonist's life before and after a turning point.
Critical reception
Reviews are divided. La Razón gave the film two and a half stars, said the tone changes abruptly between the two halves, and praised the chemistry between Hugo Arbués and Susi Sánchez. El País called it a meritorious but rough debut, with a plot that sometimes seems implausible. El Mundo gave it three stars and described a visceral film that is also overexcited, with every scene trying to stand out. The La Razón review also suggested that the film may overuse dark misfortunes such as addiction, anorexia and illness.
Acting, directing and personal stakes
Asked about doing both jobs, Lorente said he would not direct and act at the same time again, and he explained why in an interview with La Razón.
I have realised that my energy when acting and my energy when directing are very different, and I think they are incompatible.
In an interview with ABC, Lorente said he shares with the father character a difficult period of darkness in his own life, which allowed him to portray the character without judgment. He wondered what might have become of the father had he been able to enter a treatment centre without a huge cost. He also said he shares with Rubén a lack of emotional management and a tendency to handle waves of emotion through self-destruction. He told La Razón that being a father shaped how he drew the characters, particularly in the way the grandmother sets limits with care.
