Close Quarters (2020) User Reviews

Life is tough

[vicky-movies · 7/10 · 3 April 2021]

A husband and wife are trying to have a baby but after numerous attempts it's revealed that the husband is infertile. Husband wants to adopt a child but wife wants to give birth using donor sperm. They opt for artificial insemination which fails and due to the high cost of the procedure, they cannot afford another. Since the wife is so keen on giving birth to her own baby, the husband chooses a colleague and concocts a plan to get his wife naturally impregnated by this new guy. This is when things get complicated and his life/wife will never be the same again.

A melodramatic film that explores the repercussions of such a situation. The story isn't glittery, but primitive and crude. The film touches several subjects like intimacy, helplessness, trust, female choice of companionship, natural connection between expecting parents, male bonding/competition, but what the film really excels in is its examination of the fragility of relationships and their breaking points. At times the movie is hard to watch, but the characters hold your interest and drag you into their lives.

The actors playing the three main characters do a very good job. The direction is spot on. It's a good watch if you like films that depict uncomfortable circumstances and raw emotions ...... and alas life is tough!

Harsh but realistic story

[Stanley39 · 7/10 · 30 May 2021]

Yes, this could happen. It probably has happened. The movie doesn't dance around the issue and shows this tragedy in brutal and explicit scenes. It is raw, nasty, but once you start watching you have to see it through. The end is disappointing, because something more than just smashing and burning the cradle of the unborn baby has got to happen, but they leave it to our imagination. Not a fun movie to watch, but it will stay with you.

Engaging psychological family drama from Mexico

[paul-allaer · 7/10 · 30 August 2022]

As "Territorio" (2020 release from Mexico; 94 min) opens, we are introduced to a married couple, Manuel and Lupe. They really want that first child, except that at some point they find out that Manuel is infertile. In a parallel story, Ruben is a new hire at the warehouse where Manuel is a foreman. At this point we are 10 minutes into the film.

Couple of comments: let me state upfront that I was not familiar with either the director or any of the lead performers. But I was indeed very charmed with the strong writing and direction of this movie. The movie is plot-heavy so the less said about that, the better. In the end I did not expect that this would evolve into an engaging, even strong, psychological drama that reflects on the choices people make, good or bad, and then having to live with the consequences.

I have no background as to a theatrical release of this movie (if any). But I did see it written up positively in the New York Times a few days ago, and that was good enough for me to check it out (it is currently streaming on HBO Max). Very glad I did. If you are in the mood for a top quality foreign movie with interesting psychological family aspects, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

Terrible Ending

[lamont-hard · 6/10 · 22 January 2023]

I felt the ending did not match the rest of the film. He lost his wife, His marriage, In fact he lost his family, And entire way of being. But the film ends with him seemingly focussing on only the unborn baby.

There was so much focussing on the husband loosing ground to his wife and the hired surrogant that the film became way to one sided.

There was not enough time focussed on there daily lives. All we kept getting was her moving closer to one person the surrogant with very little effort by him attracting it. There was very little dialog between them about the baby, life or future.

The husbands parts with wife were hard to watch as he was spiraling, It was hard to watch her treatment of not caring or undestanding/being interested in his hopes and joys of being a father.

I did like how the writer/director did the male competition thing as the surrogant used size and brute to push his rival out of the way.

The wife was never developed enough for us, Actually the marriage before the baby issues. Her needs were vaguely written and so were her motives.

I recommend the film if your a thinker and like to fill in the blanks.... It's not a sunday morning film nor a uplifting one.

We knew the surrogant had issues but this too was not understandbly explored. I wanted to know how this effected there future.

Horrible Movie

[almasaucedo · 1/10 · 23 May 2021]

I personally felt like watching this movie was a waste of time.

Boring

[isaacochoterena · 3/10 · 6 April 2022]

This movie has a promising premise, but fails to develop it properly and is very boring.

The film exposes that toxic couples who fail to do their part in the relationship are destined to fail, as well as exposes the toxic masculinity that still exists. The story is boring since the situations and conflicts that exist become problematic due to the way the characters deal with them, accompanied by a very notorious poor character development, causing you to not empathize with them. The main character is very annoying because of his way of being and the female character has no development, which makes her very superficial. The film also has unnecessary sex, the actors do their best despite how little they are given to work with. The ending falls short and is somewhat confusing.

The premise about this couple and their main conflict is very interesting but it is not exploited correctly or extensively in this film, which ends up being boring due to the lack of exploiting some interesting situations on this topic.

Didn't really see the ending coming

[waynedarragh-65655 · 10/10 · 23 November 2021]

Good, but sad to watch what people will do to each other when pressure mounts. If you have ever had a situation with a person and thought....if a chance meeting with this person would not have happened, what would my life be like? This film shows you that happiness is actually super fragile and could implode on you at any time due to something unexpected. I was angry with all three characters at the end.

Rough manhood crashing

[evsavio · 8/10 · 26 August 2021]

Classical latin masculinity is displayed but reality kicks everyone and they sink in the loneliness of a life full of predjuice. A great film.

Predicted storyline but Great direction.

[superlateral-extract · 8/10 · 29 May 2021]

Acting of main characters is spot on. Nice flowing story. Direction and cinematography both are wonderful.