Tiempo compartido

If you have ever entertained the temptation to time share at a resort, give Time Share a chance to deter you from a potential disappointment. Writer-director Sebastian Hofmann and writer Julio Chavezmontes have mounted a crafty Costa-Rican satire of corporate tyranny and paternal vulnerability in the tropical time-share industry of Mexico.

Husband Pedro (Luis Gerardo Mendez), wife Eva (Cassandra Ciangherotti), and son spend a considerable amount of time at a fancy new villa recently acquired by an international conglomerate claiming to offer them "paradise" for their pesos. No vacationer who has been approached by a sales mongrel from a resort can neglect the suspicion that they are being "taken."

They are forced to share with another family because of an overbooking, for which there is no comp or remorse from a corporation that claims overbooking "isn't illegal if it's the result of success." Corporate indifference at that basic level and distance from the protections of everyday modern living are like being list in a jungle.

The interesting twist to this cautionary tale is that ambiguity supersedes any concrete proof that this has been a scam. Just as prominent concern is the slam on the father, who bears the ignominy and who, like dad at an avalanche in Force Majeure, faces humiliation for a perceived cowardice, a blow to masculinity difficult to ignore.

Along with the indignities suffered by workers in the hospitality force, the men especially are victims of a culture that, despite the claims of females, still holds males hostages to paternalistic notions of responsibility.

Even laundry worker Andres Andres (Miguel Rodarte) has his challenges with the corporate funny business, for like Pedro, he is responsible although possibly abuse by a corporation that uses him and his wife as profit-making traumatic donors.

Time Share won the Special Jury Prize for Screenwriting at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Given the ambiguities of nasty vacation mishaps, its screenplay accurately portrays the vulnerabilities of once happy-go-lucky vacationers who entertain corporate vultures.

This Netflix movie doesn't know what it wants to be. It's is a big mix of charm, oddness, is a touch comedic, and there's a strong dash of threat and tension too, but it never takes full advantage of any of those elements. Good looking and with a great soundtrack, this could have been better.

I don't bother writing reviews very often anymore and I doubt I would've written one for this film either had I not stumbled across a terrible review. Clearly the other reviewer hated this film and everyone is entitled to their own opinion but their brutal dismissal was one I just couldn't abide with.

Is this a fast-paced thrill a minute adventure? No.

Is it a side-splitting comedy? No.

Does it make any brilliant societal observation? No.

Does it have to accomplish any of those things to be a good, successful, entertaining film? No.

The film is beautiful. Its colors, locale, music and meandering pacing give it a mellow dreamlike quality - like, perhaps... a vacation at a resort.

The primary conflict is one that one annoy the crap out of any of us.

The events that evolve (or devolve, if you will) or two protagonists from their innocuous introduction to the destructive consequences of their encouter are perfectly ambiguous but there are also more than enough clues to explain them.

A beautiful and compelling movie. Hardly a must-see or an entry on anybody's top 100 but not bad at all.

If you enjoy well made foreign indies, then I recommend this film. The film is beautifully shot and the acting is on point. It is a slow burn somewhat surrealist movie. If that sounds like your kind of film and have Netflix then there is no reason not to check it out. Personally, my main complaint was with the narrative as the film progressed. I felt the film sort of became lost in itself.

I catched this mini masterpiece at Sundance and I am grateful to be the first user review. This film is much more than meets the eye. It begins as a light family comedy of errors and it ends as a horror film where the only monsters are the feelings of paranoia and neurosis in the father figure characters. It is a smart critique on globalization, savage capitalism, the re colonization of Mexico *Even the hotel is an Aztec pyramid. A scary POV of a based patriarchal society. I recommend to watch this bizarre fable, a strange marriage between Buñuel and Lynch. RJ Mitte from Breaking Bad gives a mature portray or an American manager. Glad to see him grow up into a solid actor.