Most romantic movies tell the story of the beginnings of relationships: boy meets girl, they fall in love at first sight or gradually, their love goes through all kinds of trials and if the lovers are not separated by fate, the film ends with a wedding or at least with a long kiss. ‘ Volveréis ‘ (2024 – the title in the English distribution is ‘The Other Way Around‘) by the Spanish director Jonás Trueba tells about the end of a love story. The film starts from a crazy but interesting idea. What if the end of a marriage was marked by a party? After all, when a couple gets married they don’t know exactly what to expect, while when they break up things are much clearer, and if the breakup is amicable, then it’s about two new beginnings that can be as promising as the beginning of a marriage. So we have all the makings of a romantic or anti-romantic comedy.
Ale (she) is a film director, Alex (he) is an actor. Even their names are almost identical and at first glance and subsequent glances they seem like an ideal couple. We never find out why they decided to break up after 14 years of living together. We see at the beginning of the film some domestic scenes of a couple’s Sunday morning, in which split screens suggest parallel lives rather than lives together, but their only argument we witness is a discussion about a movie. It’s together that they decide to break up and organize a divorce party to which they invite their families and friends. We probably shouldn’t be so surprised, after all, marriage is an optional institution in that part of the world and perhaps the message of the film was that love survives breakups. Most of the film is filled with meetings with their parents, work colleagues, good friends and neighbors whom they inform of their decision and whom they invite to the party. The reactions are as surprised and varied as those of the viewers who see the film.
The two actors who play the lead roles (Itsaso Arana and Vito Sanz) are excellent. Like everyone around them in the film, the viewers can’t help but fall in love with them, regret their breakup and wonder what made them decide to go on separate ways. The main problem with ‘Volveréis‘ is repetition. At one point, there’s even a discussion between people in the film world about linear films (in which the action progresses and something is always happening) and circular films (in which the same idea is repeated). ‘Volveréis‘ is a circular film. It starts from an excellent idea, but after the second or third discussion with friends or relatives who are informed of the breakup and are invited to the party, we understand the principle and we keep waiting for something or something else to happen. It doesn’t and the ending is also predictable in its very ambiguity. The screenwriters and director try something quite interesting when they seem to adopt the film-in-film format, but this idea is also abandoned. I almost miss, a very rare thing for me, an ‘American’ ending. It will definitely be added to the ‘remake’.