In the City

In the City is a Spanish drama with English subtitles that was written by Tomas Aragay and Cesc Gay who also directed. The movie features an ensemble cast including Monica Lopez, María Pujalte and Eduard Fernandez. The film is concerned with the daily lives, lies, frustrations, secrets and loneliness of eight friends in their thirties living in Barcelona. Each member of the mostly upper class group is facing a mid-life crisis. Some are married with children, while others struggle with their unsatisfying or demanding careers. On the lower end of the spectrum are those who wait tables to get by.

For example, Monica (played by Lopez) becomes increasingly frustrated and distracted from her seemingly happy home with an loving partner (played by Amado) and young daughter. Mario (played by Fernandez) suspects that his wife (played by N'Dongo) is cheating on him. In retaliation, he begins to flirt with a barmaid (played by Watling).

Meanwhile, Sofia (played by Pujalte) spends a lot of time discussing her active sex life. Nonetheless, not everyone believes her stories.

Tomas, a newly divorced teacher (played by Brendemuhl) is having an illicit and illegal affair with one of his students who is 16 years old (played by Makaroff) and is terrified of someone finding out.

One of the group's members is brazen enough to act upon her lesbian impulses, however the details of such are not evident. For the most part, the characters deal with infidelity of many types - physical, emotional, spiritual and financial.

The loneliness of each character is apparent as they dine alone and come home to no messages on their answering machines. However, many of the people are strong enough to endure their situations. Some of the women are very unconventional, yet still deal with the many traditional issues facing women in the region at that time.

In the end, the worlds of these people are hopeful, as the end features them enjoying a balcony luncheon.