I enjoyed Whisky, the joint Argentinean, Uruguayan, Spanish, German production from now deceased director Juan Pablo Rebella and his co-maker Pablo Stoll. Rebella committed suicide two years after this film was released in Britain, something that after seeing Whisky comes as a great shame as he will not be gracing the film-making circles in the future. The film is about everyday people in everyday locations, the fact it takes place in South America is irrelevant because the film is about the want to escape the everyday; the mundane even if it is just for a brief time. The people that inhabit the film are grim and expressionless people; unfulfilled and worthless felt people who could go through their daily routine in their sleep. The people are elderly but single; friendly and understanding but in their own downbeat manner – the film is slow and deliberate but brilliant all the same.

The fact co-director Rebella took his own life two years after this film adds an odd layer on top of an already interesting study. Rebella co-wrote the piece and to me has quite clearly put down some of his own thoughts, feelings; even emotions into this project. Rebella does not want to say anything too grander during the opening twenty to thirty minutes but just wants to, through editing, get across a feeling of frustration in life; a frustration of repetition as Jacobo (Pazos) opens up his factory each morning and we see the employees enter thus starting the same procession each day.

But Jacobo learns of a visit from his more successful brother Herman (Bolani),someone he shares an uneasy friendship with due to a prior event in their lives revolving around a family tragedy; usually an efficient back-story idea for this sort of downbeat, dramatic genre. Thrown in amongst the mix is a supervisor of the younger factory employees of sorts; Marta (Pascual) who will eventually play Jacobo's mock wife but seems to have more in common with Herman than she'd first think.

The film is about relationships; friendships but relationships of all sorts. Men and women pretending to be married; brothers that share uneasy truces; friendships that strike up between a male and a female of which one thinks the other is already taken. These are confused and tantalisingly so relationships but relationships none-the-less. Prior to this running idea is a series of shots and scenes dedicated to real life objects that don't work or do work but only after a lot of attention. These include a car the very first shot of the film which takes a while to fire up and get going. There are other visual references within the factory of objects working in odd fashions; the banging on the top of the light and the frequent mentioning of a blind that does not work all seem meaningless on the surface but are clues and precursors to the unorthodox relationships and the manner in which these odd people operate that follow.

One thing leads to another and the real study gets going when the three people arrive at a holiday resort. The resort is an interesting 'space' in which the hotel rooms; the swimming pools and the casinos will act as places these three people will try to enjoy themselves but figure each other out anyway. Outside of the resort are beaches and restaurants that will act for some of the more sedate scenes in which characters, namely Herman and Marta, will get to know each other more. What's interesting during these exchanges is actor Andrés Pazos' face and how he plays the character as someone who doesn't really know how to behave given the flirtatious elements the conversations his supposed wife is having with his brother.

But the character of Jacobo is interesting all the same; a downbeat and perhaps the more personified character Rebella wrote in relation to himself at the time. We get glimpses of the real him; a calm and sedate exterior is partially substituted during a scene at a football match when he just unloads at a linesman for something he may have done further in the past – this is much to his brother's surprise and it may catch the audience out by coming across as quite humorous material when really it's a subtle hint at why prior relations may have failed for him. But the film is deceptive in this retrospect; the idea that one man and a female he knows become pretend husband and wife to fool a brother sounds like something out of an old, Hollywood screwball comedy. The film isn't played for laughs as much as it played to be understood as to why someone would go through with it; maybe we all get to the point in our lives where we don't care as much anymore and the sense of adventure or risk is better than a repetitive; zero emotion lifestyle.

If the film works, it's because it's a look into a world some of us might be familiar with. Yes, it's South America but it could be anywhere – location isn't the point as much as it is with other South American films such as City of God. It's about a breakaway from a life one has become embedded with or chained to. In this case, watching someone snap off the chain as others interact around them is fascinating and somewhat humbling. Even if Rebella died early under tragic circumstances, he went out on a high filmic note.

Terrific little film. Mostly (or only?) static shots, each one pretty as a picture, but it's not a pretty picture; Jacobo is an older Uruguayan man who doesn't laugh or smile and has recently lost his mother after long taking care of her, while running a sock factory as well. Then it is time for the (Jewish) ritual of placing the tombstone on her grave and his brother Hermano (which simply means 'brother') will finally come over from Brasil to pay his respects. Jacobo asks his employee Marta to stay with him for a few days, though his intentions are not very obvious or clear. Marta seems to have higher hopes than Jacobo; when she fixes them a king-size bed out of two smaller ones, but Jacobo changes it back as quickly as he can.

The humour is so very dry and casual, but still can't be missed. For instance, when Jacobo puts a novelty magnet (of a little hand with the thumb pointing up) that Hermano just took a look at, back on the fridge: suddenly it's pointing down. Throughout the 'adventures' of this somewhat unlikely trio, there are many feelings simmering just below the surface and ready to burst, but nothing actually happens. If something did happen (did Marta sleep with Hermano? I'd think so) the viewer does not get to find out, or Jacobo redirects his anger towards some soccer players on a field. And nor do we find out if Marta in the end will eventually show up at work, or took the money and ran to the waterfalls in Brasil... We do have a pretty good idea, though, don't we?

'Whisky' (the origin of the title I did not see coming, thinking it would have something to do with whiskEy and / or alcoholism, but it's understatedly hilarious nonetheless) turned out to be a film I was very much looking forward to on a subconscious level. It is slow-paced yet exciting in some strange way and has a contemplative feel to it that I just loved. It reminded me to give 'Bubble' (by Steven Soderbergh) another chance, which didn't impress me too much the first time, give Rebella and Stoll's debut '25 Watts' (that one I did very much like) another go, as well as 'The Man without a Past', and more by Aki Kaurismäki.

A big 9 out of 10 for now.

A struggling Uruguayan businessman persuades his equally unglamourous assistant to pretend to be his wife in order to impress his estranged brother. If this conjures up thoughts of 'The Birdcage', or you imagine a riotous South American carnival of a film, you'd best prepare yourself otherwise, for 'Whisky' is characterised by almost exaggeratedly understated acting and a bone dry humour;, and its real subject matter is the psychology of failure. At start, it feels slow, but as one gets used to the characters, one sees more of the joke and sadness in the subtle plot. There are some resemblances to early Jarmusch, but even so, it's questionable whether one can make a wholly successful movie when quite so little explicit happens. In Uruguay, incidentally, they say "whisky" instead of "cheese" when a photograph is taken; but the deeper meaning of the film's title remains elusive at its end.