EL LUGAR DE LA OTRA / IN HER PLACE (2024)

From Chile, an excellent choice to compete for upcoming Foreign Language Oscar® honors.  No safe, government-sanctioned mediocrity, but a fascinating barrier-crossing take on an infamous murder trial from the 1950s.  (Well-known writer murders her lover in a public space and receives a Presidential Pardon after serving a fraction of her sentence, mostly because she’s a popular/talented author.)  But in the hands of adaptor/director Maite Alberdi (herself twice Oscar-nom’d for documentary), this somewhat familiar tale becomes something else entirely.  A study of Haves-and-Have-Nots from the perspective of a peripheral figure, a legal assistant on staff (Elisa Zulueta). part of a large office under the judge in the case.  Whether at home in a two sizes too small apartment with a barely working husband* and her two late teen boys (pervasive male entitlement and an insistence on being served overwhelming her); or on the job where she works far beyond her official duties and work schedule, it’s a wonder she can stand up straight let alone over-perform at every function.  But something snaps as she learns more of the socialite murder suspect and realizes she has the key to this glamorous woman’s apartment.  Shyly at first, then boldly, even recklessly, she begins to live the other woman’s suspended life.  Her clothes, her taste, her literary habits, her bed & favorite fragrance.  But after tasting how the other half lives, how to go back?  None of this feels pushed or in need of chewy explanation; she just falls into it.  But how to fall out?  Superbly realized by everyone, and fully developed at an hour and a half.  Great period detail, too, with perfectly lit interiors, though exteriors a bit too yellow-tinged and weathered.  An appeal to modern æthestic standards of ‘the past remembered?’  Some unfiltered TechniColor film stock would have made this re-imagining even better.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *But give the husband credit for being observant.  He may misread the situation (no doubt the green-eyed monster coming out), but at least he's paying attention.