A bittersweet tale of loneliness, Something Is About To Happen takes us on a troubling but wholly captivating journey. Malena Alterio is staggering as the beleaguered protagonist who simply cannot catch a break. With a final act that feels like a gut punch, this is an essential watch. 

Middle-aged Lucía (Malena Alterio) hasn’t got much going on in her life; she is an IT support tech for a large company, cares for her ailing father, and is seemingly just letting life pass her by. When her world gets turned upside down, and she loses her job, she meets actor Calaf, and the duo hits it off tremendously. Yet, one day, he disappears and is left with nothing but memories; Lucía begins a career as a taxi driver to earn money and maybe, just maybe, meet the mysterious Calaf again. 

When you get a cab, Uber, or whatever your desired private driving service of choice is these days, you tend to strike up a conversation with the driver; it’s natural, and most of us do it. They occasionally rant away, or you just have the good old chit-chat. What you perhaps do not think about is the possible impact of that journey, of that conversation you have with the driver. For 99% of us, it’s a nothing moment of our day. Yet, a taxi driver does not just get the amenable pleasant fare that is you or I. No, they also get the grumpy boss or the extremely dodgy duo who are almost certainly up to something illegal. They experience a wild range of customers, all the while going through the difficulties of life themselves.

This is where we are in Something Is About To Happen. We have a character who is experiencing the hardship of life while also trying to find something positive out of it. Maybe that involves telling a bit of a fib to a passenger about your personal life; maybe it’s about being deadly serious about it, too. Maybe it’s even about having a tryst with a man who has just been told he is dying because you want him to feel a little better about life. Who knows!? 

For a large portion of Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Something Is About To Happen, you wonder when the other foot will drop. We see Lucía go through the emotional ringer, but there has to be an end game to her story, right? Well, for the patient and those able to withstand seeing someone’s world fall apart around them over 100 minutes of black humour-filled misery, then you will be rewarded with, at first, the most heart-sinking moment imaginable before willfully cheering on Lucia in those final 10 minutes. 

There is a wonderful naturalness (it’s perhaps a slight stretch to verité-style) in how Antonio Méndez Esparza has directed his film. Even when it has such an exaggerated story as we see here in Something Is About To Happen, that natural tone emanates through grounds everything, almost into a mundane piece. But there are wonderfully tense moments splattered throughout Lucía’s fares. Additionally, comedy and hints of drama are placed on this canvas; no matter what, we are never bored with what is being shown. We are more intrigued as to where it is all heading, and as mentioned, that journey ends up being well worth it. 

Malena Alterio is the real key to the success of Something Is About To Happen; without her, I am not sure how well this film would have played out. She is absolutely perfect here. Alterio is so many things all at once here. At times, we feel broken for her (especially in two scenes), and at times, we smile along with her as her positive nature comes to the fore. We are even terrified for her on some of these journeys. One thing remains: we are all in on her story, even when she does something rather hasty and misguided early on. She is full of humanity (which is probably why we relate to her so much). Even when moments take a turn, we understand (slightly) the reasoning.

Although a veteran sitcom actor, she pulls off the dramatic scenes so well. An example is the journey with that dodgy duo that was previously mentioned. She has us terrified of what might happen to her, and when she has to drive a customer to the police station, we gulp loudly as we see that panic returns in her eyes as she tries to work out what her options are. It’s a special performance that rightfully earned her awards.

Scenes go on a bit longer than you would truly like them to, but when you think back on it, boy, do you understand why they did. There is a method to the intriguing madness here in Something Is About To Happen that you can’t help but be invested in. You are partially bewildered, even with how the same piece of Zeltia Montes’ score keeps getting played at specific moments throughout. That’s the joy of the film, though; you are on this blind journey, and you are merely hoping that Antonio Méndez Esparza is a safe driver. On this occasion, he is more than safe, with it being a journey that has a wonderfully ambiguous destination. Jot this down as one to go into as blind as possible. 

★★★★

Something Is About To Happen is on Film Movement Plus or via Amazon Prime Video.

Support Us

I am but a small website in this big wide world. As much as I would love to make this website a big and wonderful entity. That would bring in more costs. So, for now, all I hope is to make Upcoming On Screen self-sufficient. Well, enough to make any website fees less of a worry for me in the future. You can support the website below…

Patreon

You can support us in a variety of ways (other than that wonderful word of mouth) and those lovely follows. If you are so inclined to help us out then you can support us via Patreon, find our link here! We don’t want to ask you much, so for now, we have limited our tiers to £1.50 and £3.50. These will, of course, grow the more we plan to do here at Upcoming On Screen.

Thanks for reading; every view helps us out more than you would think (we have fragile egos). Until next time.

Social Media

You can also support us via Twitter and Facebook Instagram and Blue Sky! by giving us a follow and a like. Every single one helps!