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The Blonde One Movie Review

The Blonde One is a 2019 Argentine romantic drama film directed by Marco Berger and starring Gaston Re and Alfonso Baron. It’s an understated, but effective drama.

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“So why didn’t you tell me before?

Because I was ashamed“

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Two men begin a romantic relationship in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One is this shy man who isn’t very talkative while the other is this overly confident, charismatic man who brings the former to live with him due to monetary reasons. The two live in a heterosexual world as their friends are all straight, so they are closeted. A lot of the movie’s impact stems from their tendency to hide and rely on very subtle gestures to communicate their feelings.

And that approach worked to a degree. It’s a predictable story that ends with a sad ending that I saw telegraphed from miles away. A different, more original ending would have made the movie more memorable. As for that subtlety, it worked in a sense that the movie was highly erotic. In fact, it’s more graphic than the majority of similarly themed films while the emphasis on everything that goes on before sex instead of the sex act itself was strong and it made the movie both playful and sexy.

My issue is the characterization. Because the movie employs extreme minimalism in its storytelling and especially in its scarce dialogue, the characters ended up being slim and underdeveloped. They are distinctly different, and thus they do function as a believable couple, but more character development would have been nice to witness. They share a couple of meaningful conversations, but they came few and far between.

The Blonde One benefits from excellent performances from its competent players, in particular Re. He excelled at playing this shy man who is scared, but clearly wants a more meaningful connection. The movie also clearly hinted on the two men’s very poor upbringing and that low socioeconomic level is the one thing responsible for their limited lifestyles. But more could have been done with all of these themes and the flick also needed to have been more cinematic as its score and cinematography are far from remarkable.

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The Blonde One is an understated, but mostly effective romantic drama that focuses way too much on subtle details in characters’ behavior, but not enough on dialogue or dramatic storytelling as it is overly minimalist in its approach. Its ending is predictable, but the acting and the central dynamic are very believable.

My Rating – 3.5