Alejandro (Torres) is an aspiring toy designer trying to join Hasbro's internship program. In the meantime, he has been working at a cryogenics company and appears to be planning to obtain a work visa. Something goes wrong and he is summarily fired. His only option is to start working for a mercurial art critic named Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton). As long as Elizabeth completes a series of ostensibly simple but increasingly Kafkaesque tasks related to updating her deceased database, she agrees to sign the visa papers. Her husband's drawings are saved using her archiving software called FileMaker Pro.
Alejandro's struggle to appease Elizabeth forms the heart of “Problem Child,” with moments of magical realism (Larry Owens portrays a terrifyingly seductive personification of Craigslist) and Torres. It is sprinkled with my own figurative imagination. He gives visual language to the impossible immigration bureaucracy in a labyrinthine structure of boxes, hatches, and filing cabinets. One time, when Alejandro was meeting with an immigration lawyer and blurted out, “Let's take a look,” the lawyer excitedly wrote it down and said, “That's a great slogan for us!”
Another recurring motif in “Problemista” is the hourglass. This appears on screen to enhance Alejandro's fight against time. One of the film's greatest strengths lies in how Torres conveys his stress. Whether it's at the hands of an indifferent stranger who controls Torres' destiny with the click of a mouse, or at the hands of a narcissistic, selfish, and operatically unreasonable boss, will he be able to overcome this? It is located in A contest since happy hour was invented. One of Torres's most subtle and harrowing effects is how unfortunate people simply evaporate when their time is up.
Alejandro is determined to escape that fate, and “Problem Child'' centers on his troubled relationship with Elizabeth, a potentially stock character to whom Swinton injects intense and frightening authorship. The sharpest and most dynamic. While Alejandro is recessive and meek, Torres plays him with a downcast, socially awkward grimace and a bouncy trot that adds to his dreamy charm, while Elizabeth is an artificial force majeure, all magenta haired. and oversized shoulder pads. Someone this pathologically self-centered, passive-aggressive, and manipulative would normally be too loathsome to like, but Swinton finds humor in even the most outlandish behavior. and vulnerabilities. (Catalina Saavedra plays Dolores, Alejandro's artist mother, who is in her own creative limbo in her hometown.)
Although Torres' storytelling can seem vague and digressive at times, “Problem Child” ultimately transcends its parts into something great. (Isabella Rossellini narrates Broken Fairy Tales.) The dream sequences, flashbacks, and asides aren't always successful, and Torres's absurdist humor is hit-or-miss. But “Problemista” turns out to be more of a heartwarming homage than an indictment. For the courage it takes to leave home, for the even greater courage it takes to see your children leave home, and for the difficult, demanding, and amazingly confident upbringing that it takes. The rest of us don't even think about how to take up space, ask for more, and apologize.
“Problemista'' is far from perfect, but it will resonate with anyone who needs reassurance that irrational hopes can overcome even more irrational experiences.
R. at area theaters. Contains some profanity and sexual content. With English and Spanish subtitles. 104 minutes.