Review: In artful Spanish tragicomedy ‘The Motive,’ a writer manipulates the world around him

By Michael Rechtshaffen

Aug. 16, 2018 2 PM PT

A darkly intriguing take on the creative process, Manuel Martín Cuenca’s “The Motive” poetically weaves a devious web around the writer’s greatest nemesis, better known as the blank page.

When Alvaro (pitch-perfect Javier Gutíerrez), a slight nebbish of a notary, sets out to prove he’s every bit the writer as his published, estranged wife, Amanda (Maria León), he’s hounded by his writing teacher (Antonio de la Torre) to live in the moment and find inspiration from his own life.

He ultimately finds his voice by clandestinely recording those belonging to the neighbors in his Seville apartment building, but not content to simply have them inform his characters, Alvaro methodically manipulates them — including his attention-starved superintendent Portera (Adelfa Calvo) and a struggling Mexican immigrant couple (Adriana Paz and Tenoch Huerta) — to drive his plot lines.

Of course, no good can come of such calculating machinations, and filmmaker Cuenca for the most part keeps this sinewy tragicomedy tightly cranked and effectively commanded by Gutierrez, who, along with Spanish character actress Calvo won Goya Awards for their full-frontally uninhibited performances.

With its probing camera and spare piano score, the film effectively creates a clinically sterile environment that’s as spiritually devoid as the soul of its protagonist, and while the inevitable twist ending doesn’t land with the unsettling thud it might have, getting there is quite the page-turner.

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