BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Keeley Coleman The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

vogonify There is something about films set more or less in a single room. There is nothing to distract from the subjects and when well done, the characters just grow on you. As part of my mission to learn Spanish, I've been poring over language books, newspapers and movies. The last of the lot is the most fun of all. El Método was a delightful surprise. A group of people face an unconventional selection process for a job. A mysterious "receptionist" lays some ground rules and it is very likely that all of them are being watched. At once a brilliant study of psychology and a edge-of-the-seat thriller, El Método is intelligent and, well, methodical. Having been disappointed with the psychological-thriller variety after Shutter Island and Black Swan, I am glad to have seen this.

Gordon-11 This film is about a group of candidates in a job interview, where they have to eliminate themselves so that only one person is left to get the job."The Method" is an intense film with constant psychological battles going on. It is very dialog heavy, and actors all speak very fast. It was not east to catch up with the amount of subtitles I had to read, but the intelligent exchanges of words made up for it. The battles in the room for the job echoes the riots outside the building, which further enhances the atmosphere of aggressiveness. Despite that, the film has many moments of relative ease and humour. The story is engaging throughout, but the open ended ending disappoints me. I hoped for a clear ending, as it would be satisfying to see who won the psychological battles.

krigler The absurdity and grotesque one-upmanship of an executive job interview is sometimes perfectly captured in El Metodo, with an anti-capitalist demonstration used as an invisible backdrop with subtle symbolism. Directing is handled with confidence, and there is some memorable acting, although towards the end the ugly head of melodramatic overacting rears, destroying the atmosphere.Also demolishing is the flawed characterization. One huge problem of the basic concept is that people interviewing for a high level managerial position have very rarely got anything to lose. Failure only gets the applicants back to other well paid, plush jobs. Such is a case with these people too; apart from their dignity and self-respect, there is nothing much at stake. Bigger problem is that even those they could easily keep were it not for their conveniently convoluted behaviour. From the writer's perspective it's simply a matter of bad characterization choices and some silly plotting. The competing interviewees behave with enormous stupidity sometimes to conveniently fit the dramatic wishes of the storyteller. One of the protagonists, a woman is rendered a victim about halfway through the film, a weak character unable to resist the sexual advances of a fellow male participant. This completely stupid and unrealistic plot development alone almost makes everything that follows implausible and shallow. (I mean, who in the world has sex in his mind during a supposedly important job interview? Come on, even the most macho males can control their animal urges - if they can't, there's no way they get to an executive position.) It's a pity the filmmakers could not muster up more courage to let the situation play itself out without sensationalist, melodramatic actions and resort to such cheap moves. What started out very well and tense, derails because of increasingly melodramatic plot solutions from the midpoint on.It's a pity also that apart from a nicely symbolic final image and some subtly added subtext the storytellers did not make more of the anti-capitalist protests apparently going on simultaneously. It's a device completely wasted.All in all, a film worth watching once for some nice psychodrama elements, but ultimately a terribly missed opportunity. For a similar premise, but a much more thrilling story watch "The Killing Room".

msmandl-1 What happens when you put together seven ostensibly qualified applicants for a single corporate position but whose ambition can drive them to do whatever it takes to get the job? Starting out amiably enough in their interaction with one another, the applicants in ways large and small, begin resorting to tactics designed to undercut one another's chance at getting the job. In this sense, what transpires in the room is essentially a microcosm of the real world with the interesting contrast that outside that room was a violent protest in the streets against corporate abuses as it applies to the "real" world of environmental pollution, etc.(such as what occurred in Seattle about ten years ago). However, it's soon revealed that one participant isn't a bona fide contestant after all; he(or she)is really a mole working for the company and one of the various tests challenging the others is to discover just who that is.The acting is truly first rate and the interview with the director on the DVD provided a very informative insight into each actor as well as the director himself.