"The Mole Agent" (2020 release from Chile; 84 min.) is a non-fiction documentary about a nursing home in Santiago, Chile. As the movie opens, Sergio is among a group of old men responding to a newspaper ad looking for men between 80 and 90 years old. Sergio finds out that a woman wants to hire someone to spy/infiltrate the nursing home where her mother is staying to make sure her mother is treated properly. Sergio is hired, and loaded with eyeglasses that can record as well as a smart phone, Sergio arrives for a 3 month stay at the nursing home. He gets to know the nursing home residents, including the elderly mom of the woman who engaged him. It's not long before he gets the first surprise... At this point we are 10 min. into the film.

Couple of comments: this is the latest documentary from Chilean writer-director Maite Alberdi. Her prior work includes, among others, the excellent "The Grown-Ups". Here she tackles a different topic altogether: how are the elderly (all of them seem to be in their 80s if not older) residents treated by staff of this Catholic nursing home? Obviously I'm not going to spoil the outcome, but let me instead offer that these frank observations are at times very funny (one of the women residents develops a crush on Sergio),and at times very moving (all of these elderly people just want some T.L.C. from their family, nothing less, nothing more). The final report that Sergio makes will make your heart ache (take a guess how many times in the 3 months Sergio was there, the woman who engaged him to "infiltrate" the nursing home, actually visited her own elderly mother...). Bottom line: this is a delightful "little" movie that has so much to show us from the human perspective.

"The Mole Agent" opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati, fully adhering to all COVID-19 protocols. Not that it mattered as it turns out that the Labor Day early evening screening where I saw this at was in fact a private showing: I was literally the only person in the theater. This has happened to me quite regularly ever since theater have reopened. I honestly don't see how this can be done on a profitable basis... In the meantime, if you are looking for a documentary focusing on a slice of humanity, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you can),on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.

It is only because of Awards Season nominations that I found out about this Chilean documentary film, I read more about it and it did sound interesting. Basically, a newspaper article is placed to find an elderly person, aged between 80-90, with some understanding and experience of using technology. One by one, the applicants are interviewed about their use of technology and other factors, as one of them is to be recruited by a private investigator in Chile. The investigator selects octogenarian Sergio Chamy to work as a mole at a retirement home. He is taught how to use spy cameras and a smartphone to report any significant findings to the investigator. His mission is to go undercover in the nursing home to investigate suspicions, from a client, of caretakers abusing the residents. Chamy settles into the home, and the camera crew are allowed in, under the pretence that they are documenting the experiences for Chamy and other residents. Chamy talks and gets to know many of the residents, especially the women, who fall in love with his charm. He reports everything he sees and hears to the private investigator, which for some time is just menial details. He eventually finds the female resident who has been specifically targeted for questioning and uses his hidden camera technology to document anything suspicious. In the end, after his stay at the home, no evidence of mistreatment or abuse is found. But this film serves much more as an insight into the desperate loneliness and seclusion the older generation have succumbed to, with many abandoned by their families. It is sobering and poignant, the spy gadgetry is kind of cool, and Chamy is a likeable character. I was hoping for perhaps something more gripping and some kind of big twist or turn by the conclusion, but it is an interesting enough documentary. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Worth watching!

A funny and sweet documentary about an elderly man who takes a job as a double agent in a retirement community to report back on the treatment of one of its residents, whose daughter suspects is receiving poor care.

What the man finds instead is a nice community of old people trying to make the best of their loneliness. He makes a lot of friends and begins to enjoy his time there, but nevertheless finds a new appreciation for his own independence and his daughter, who hasn't abandoned him the way so many of the others who he befriends have been abandoned by their own families.

I thought other countries were generally better than America about taking care of its elderly, but this movie indicates that at least in Chile, where it's set, there's just as much of a tendency in children to let the care of their aging parents become somebody else's problem.

Grade: A-