Review: 'The Good Boss' is a dark comedy with a bite, and a showpiece for Javier Bardem's acting skills

Is it possible that Javier Bardem — like his talented wife, Penelope Cruz — does his best work in their native language? That’s one takeaway from the dark comedy “The Good Boss,” in which Bardem plays a CEO slowly unraveling.

Bardem plays Blanco, the CEO of Blanco Scales, and running a well-oiled factory that produces equipment to weigh and balance anything from people to cattle. Blanco tells his employees they’re all his family, and that the loyalty and camaraderie of his employees is one reason the company is a finalist for a major award. But with the inspection committee coming to visit the factory in the next few days, problems emerge to tarnish Blanca’s sterling reputation.

There’s José (Óscar de la Fuente), an accountant recently fired by the company, who sets up a one-man protest outside the front gate. There’s Miralles (Manolo Soto), the factory’s floor manager, whose marriage is falling apart — because his wife, Aurora (Mara Guil), is sleeping with the company’s head of logistics, Khaled (Tarik Rmili). And there’s a new intern, Liliana (Almudena Amor), whose beauty becomes a distraction for Blanco.

Blanco is the sort of boss who thinks he can solve any problem. When one of his machinists, Fortuna (Celso Bugalio), comes to him because his son, Salva (Martin Páez), gets arrested, Blanco arranges to have the lad work for Blanca’s wife, Adela (Sonia Almarcha), in her dress shop. But as the awards committee’s visit looms nearer, Blanco gets the hard lesson that he can’t fix everything.

Writer-director Fernando León de Aranoa — who worked with Bardem previously on the unemployment drama “Mondays in the Sun” and the Pablo Escobar biopic “Loving Pablo” — builds up the tension, and the wry humor, gradually, which just heightens the discomfort at Blanca’s expense. 

The key to that tension is Bardem’s slow-burn of a performance. His Blanco starts off as avuncular and easygoing, but when the going gets tough, his teeth ultimately come out. It’s a strong, nuanced performance, and gives “The Good Boss” its ferocity.

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‘The Good Boss’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, September 2, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Not rated, but probably R for strong sexuality, some violence and language. Running time: 116 minutes; in Spanish, with subtitles.