According to this Spanish film’s tagline, “A True Friend Stabs You in the Front.” AMIGO (2019) is, in essence, what is known as a two-hander (i.e. a narrative with just two main characters) featuring the real-life Spanish comic team David Pareja and Javier Botet. Both contributed to the screenplay, and both can be dubbed the eponymous Amigo in a film that plays like a combination of MISERY (1990) and Alex de la Iglesia’s DYING OF LAUGHTER (1999), which also featured a comedy duo embroiled in a funny/macabre narrative.
Pareja plays David, whose longtime pal Javi (Botet) is in an accident that renders him paralyzed from the waist down. After Javi is released from the hospital David volunteers to be his caretaker, with David’s secluded riverfront house becoming Javi’s new home.
The placid surroundings—trees, running water, sunlight that bathes the interiors in beatific shafts of brightness—serve as an ironic counterpoint to the gradual descent into madness that overtakes both characters. In short order Javi grows quite depressed and the able-bodied David quite dissatisfied. Not even the addition of Ava, a comely nurse, does much to liven things up.
But then things literally turn dark with the onset of winter. Snow blankets the countryside and the interiors grow increasingly stark and shadowy. Paranoia sets in as David comes to believe that Javi is trying to poison him, and conceals a video camera to record his pal’s doings. It seems Javi knows a dark secret about David that involves a suspicious killing, and the latter grows increasingly abusive, making a dangerous situation even more so.
This film won numerous awards at various film festivals, and it’s nothing if not well made. Director Oscar Martin keeps things taunt and streamlined, albeit with hints of the type of dark comedy in which the aforementioned Alex de la Iglesia specializes. Yet Martin also adds much of his own, with quirky touches that include a television set that always seems to be playing old movies whose happenings mirror what the protagonists are feeling. The final shot may be held a bit too long, but otherwise the filmmaking is impeccable, and the film overall a nifty exercise in contained apprehension.
Vital Statistics
AMIGO
El Ojo Mecanico/ Powehi Films
Director: Oscar Martin
Producer: Elena Munoz
Screenplay: Oscar Martin, Javier Botet, David Pareja
Cinematography: Alberto Morago Munoz
Editing: Emilio Gonzalez
Cast: Javier Botet, David Pareja, Patricia Estremera, Esther Gimeno, Luichi Macias, Ana del Arco, Alfonso Mendiguchia, Zoe Berriatua