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The Mole Agent Movie Review

The Mole Agent is a 2020 Chilean documentary film directed by Maite Alberdi. It’s such a sweet, heartwarming flick.

A private investigator hires an elderly man to go undercover in a nursing home in Chile. The movie was obviously filmed without the permission of anybody involved, but near the end of the production they told everybody, so I am fine with it on moral grounds. What bothered me was the film’s typically modern approach at documentary filmmaking, which is blurring the line between live-action and a documentary.

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There are some scenes here that were simply overly fabricated and thought out, which disrupted the leisurely flow of an otherwise pleasant and real film. But most of it was so charming and lovely that I really liked it despite these apparent flaws.

Sergio is so likable and fun that it is easy to get swept by his conversations with all the elderly people in this nursing home. He is instantly sympathetic and he is so good-hearted, thus the movie achieved a sense of community and care throughout its runtime that is quite short actually and the movie is so well paced that it flies by how involving it turned out to be.

The Mole Agent has a bunch of memorable conversations that are not only full of heart, but also some valuable messages about aging, love and friendship. The women hitting on Sergio were so much fun and those scenes were among the funniest while the whole stealing subplot was so crazy that it worked as it was unexpected and also humorous in a way.

The direction is strong, the editing is pretty good and the movie is also very well shot. It is an easy, charming and cozy watch, but it also needed a bit more sophistication thematically speaking, though the dialogue clearly is amazing. I wished for a bigger through line for the whole picture as it felt meandering without it, but undoubtedly most of the movie worked as its heart is in the right place and it’s populated by real people who are uniformly interesting and wonderful.

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The Mole Agent is somewhat problematic in the blurring of fiction and documentary, but most of the movie worked like a charm as it is so leisurely paced, sweet and full of heart that it is difficult not to appreciate it. The many conversations that we get to tune in here are wonderful and the sense of community is beautiful.

My Rating – 4