'The Good Boss' review: Javier Bardem gets smarmy in satirizing capitalism

You know he's read all the best management books. He probably subscribes to the Harvard Business Review. And he's mastered all the team building buzzwords: especially about how his employees are his "family." But giving your business management such a personal touch can backfire dramatically. This is foreshadowed from the start in Fernando León de Aranoa's light-hearted but never dull satire of capitalism - a film that isn't quite sure what it's saying, even if it mesmerizes you with Javier's performance Bardem.

Julio Blanco de Bardem owns a factory that manufactures scales. He inherited it from his father. And in an all-staff town hall that opens the film, he explains how he views his employees as his “children.” Then he goes on to say that, of course, among his children there will be favorites. Not to mention that sometimes you have to make "difficult decisions for the good of the family".

And, my God, are Blanco's "kids" in trouble? There's Miralles (Manolo Solo), whose disintegrating marriage leads him to get distracted at work and screw up key deliveries that will cost the company money. Jose (Óscar de la Fuente), who has just been fired and has set up camp in front of the factory to protest. The handyman of Blanco Fortuna (Celso Bugallo), whose son is a hooligan notorious for beating up immigrants. And there's Liliana (Almudena Amor), Blanco's new marketing intern immediately takes more than a shine because she's beautiful - or in Blanco's words, "tall".

Bardem is a commanding presence in "The Good Boss", someone who dominates his business as much as he runs it. Son Blanco thinks he's charm personified, someone who can solve all his employees' problems with the force of his charisma: for poor Miralles, he thinks taking him to a brothel is the way to make him forget his wife. But none of his meddling is really designed to help his employees. It's about making business problems go away, just like most human resources in business are there to protect the business more than to improve the quality of life of the employees.

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