The powerful financier named Álvaro de la Garza (Carlos Larrañaga) married to a beautiful woman (Carmen Elias) and with two daughters, meets the young girl Mane (Beatriz Rico). From now on, his life takes a different course and his peaceful existence is threatened when he becomes the victim of a twisted plot, full of intrigue, error, blackmail and presumed murder.
Adept at accepting any assignment unrelated to his own interests, Fernando Fernán Gómez, who reserved a small role for himself, directs this not entirely satisfactory film. This director has made some uninteresting movies, along with others of great appeal, which usually tell stories of his own and of his íntimately personal conscience. This time, the bland, weak storyline by none other than Luis Alcoriza, -Luis Buñuel's regular writer-, a director and writer exiled in Mexico, leaves much to be desired. Here the collaboration between Fernando Fernán Gómez and Luis Alcoriza was average. Thus, the script was updated and suitably reestructured by Fernando Fernán Gómez himself, but even the results were not good. Unfortunately, the director fails to nail the style, or rhythm of the story, which goes from becoming a slow-burning thriller with brief bursts of terror, to becoming an ungainly tragicomedy farce. Meanwhile, throughout, he develops a disorganized narrative based on a presumed modernism consisting of scenes imagined in black and white, tilted shots and a lousy abusive use of voice-overs.
The motion picture was mediocrely directed by Fernando Fernán Gómez, having a lot of flaws, gaps and shortfalls. Prestigious actor/director Fernando appeared in more than 200 films, and directed others 20, and wrote novels, plays and poetry. He was a member of the Spanish Royal Academy and one of the best actors in film history. Along with Iciar Bollain, he's only person to have been nominated as a performer (El Abuelo, 1999) , director (Viaje a ninguna parte, 1986) and writer (Lázaro de Tormes, 2001) for three different movies at the Goya Awards. He actually won in every category at least once. Fernando was a prolific and important actor and also directed a few films, such as: "Lázaro de Tormes", "Fuera de juego", "Mambru se fue a la guerra", "5 tenedores", "5.000 días juntos", "Ninette", "Venganza de Don Mendo", "El extraño viaje" and, of course, his greatest hit, Viaje a ninguna parte". " Pesadilla para un rico" score: 4.5/10.
