Directed and written by León de Aranoa
Starring Javier Bardem, Almudena Amor, and Manolo Solo
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour and 56 minutes
In theaters August 26

by Matt McCafferty, Staff Writer

Funny, heartbreaking and at times exhausting, The Good Boss spends a week with a highly unethical, yet undeniably charismatic boss of an industrial scale factory. Yes, scales. On the surface, this looks like another workplace dark comedy. However, Writer-Director Fernando León de Aranoa makes the wise choice to give Javier Bardem the spotlight for nearly the entire movie. 

There’s not much more than a short scene here or there where Bardem’s not on screen. He takes the movie over with a kind of performance that should have him in the Oscar race in an ideal world. It’s nothing flashy in that kind of takeover way. In fact, it’s all of his little facial expressions that are so much fun to watch. I went back to watch a few scenes on mute just to focus in on all the little facial movements he makes. It really is a beautiful thing to watch. It’s a nuanced performance that not many other actors could pull off.

Bardem plays Blanco, the owner of a scale factory in a provincial Spanish town. With word of an upcoming inspection for a local business excellence award, Blanco is on high alert to make sure everything in his factory is perfect. Everything down to the functionality of the little balance scale that’s on display at the front entrance of his factory. Of course, he runs into much bigger problems than the display scale. A recently fired employee shows up with his two kids on public land just outside the factory’s entrance to protest Blanco’s layoffs. On top of that, an important employee of his who also happens to be a long-time friend is constantly slipping up at his job. Not to mention, he also gets romantically involved with an intern who turns out to be just as devious as he is.  

Blanco is the unquestionable villain of the story. It’s evident pretty early on that this guy is not redeemable. León de Aranoa makes some interesting choices as both writer and director. On one hand, he’s reminding us of just how slimy and terrible some men in these power positions can be. He does it with a comedic approach, so it doesn’t have the kind of sting it would if it were done more dramatically. On the other hand, the comedy allows us to laugh at this character. Watching Blanco suffer with his decisions is part of what makes this film so enjoyable. There’s a particular scene where everything gone wrong is piling up on. He has a mini-breakdown of sorts. It’s a rare instance where you will be rooting for a character to suffer a nervous breakdown.

My main takeaway from this film is its take on how people abuse power. Blanco happens to be the easiest example in the story. A man at the top of the chain with no oversight from anybody. There are probably dozens of examples of how he abuses his power if I were to list them all out. But he’s not the only one. You can also see it happening with a number of the side characters around him. The woman Blanco sleeps with uses this information to move up in the company. The guy protesting outside the entrance finds power in making Blanco’s life miserable. He even says something like, “Over there, you are the boss. Over here, I am in charge.” 

My guess is León de Aranoa wrote this film based on some actual observations of his time in the workforce over the years. The events that play out in this film are sadly not too far fetched from the wild stories we hear on the news almost everyday. Corporate leaders involved in shady dealings and corruption. Sadly, there are too many Blancos in the world. It might be hard to come away with something positive from a pessimistic film like The Good Boss. The final scene also won’t help make you feel any better about things. Maybe the best way to look at it is by taking this as a reminder of how not to be when in a position of power. Whatever power it may be, do good with it.