Ana has invited the upstairs neighbours over. Salva and Laura are slightly younger than them and welcomed them with open arms when they moved into the building, but the constant moaning and groaning coming from their apartment has become a source of arguments for Julio and Ana... perhaps it’s jealousy, they wish their own sex life was as spicy.
The People Upstairs is the lovechild of Cesc Gay. Titled Sentimental in its country of origin, Spain, The People Upstairs is the feature film adaptation of Gay's own play, Los Neighbors Above, with elements of the theatrical presentation remaining. A concise 82 minutes in length, The People Upstairs has all of the flashings of a theatrical experience; a dialogue-driven story, a minimal cast, minimal set locations, and a complete lack of any musical compositions (with the exception of the final closing scene. What is missing, however, is any form of interlude.
Because what Gay has created is an incredibly efficient combination of dialogue between 2-4 characters. Everything serves a purpose, whether to develop unique character traits or build certain emotions in the audience towards a certain character, There is no real extraneous dialogue or filler. With the entire story itself being based on this dialogue, the entire film takes place in one apartment (apart from a couple of establishing shots in the hallway outside) and only has limited types of interactions as there are only four characters present in the entire runtime, from a visual standpoint, The People Upstairs can be monotonous in nature.
Without the variety of different set environments, no new characters being introduced, and the entirety of the dialogue being in Spanish (with English subtitles), the audience is put into the difficult situation of being either completely enraptured by the story or becoming exhausted and weary from the line after line of important subtitles.
In a film that goes against the technique of "show, don't tell", there is little opportunity for the audience to rest their eyes and passively observe a scene. Constant attention must be given to the subtitles to ensure that important information isn't missed, and when the entire movie is effectively a single extended scene without any scene or chapter breaks, it becomes altogether tiresome.
Outside of the exhausting element of its narrative choices, the story is relatable and the humour rapidly oscillates between dry sarcasm and sexually awkward content. While visually there is nothing sexually adventurous to see, much of the dialogue revolves around discussing expressions of more carnal desires.
Overall explorations of human connections and the need for effective communication and honesty are on the cards, with Belén Cuesta and Alberto San Juan serving the respective roles of mediator and instigator to Javier Cámara's antagonism.
The characterization lacks subtlety, beating the audience over the head with its somewhat exaggerated personality traits; another trait that has been borrowed from the theatrical representations of the story.
That being said, while Javier Cámara's snarky argumentative demeanour is grating and Alberto San Juan's smarmy attempt at charm and seduction leaves a lot to be desired, Belén Cuesta steals the show with her amicability alongside the vulnerabilities that Griselda Siciliani puts on display.
Awkward and complex, The People Upstairs is quite the ride if you are willing to take it.
The Upstairs People is in cinemas from January 14th, 2021