Review by John P. Harvey.

3/5

Montse (Emma Vilarasau) has arranged an overdue get-together at the family’s island holiday home for her son, David (Enric Auquer), along with his girlfriend, Marta (Macarena García); and her daughter, Julia (Maria Rodríguez Soto), along with Julia’s husband, Toni (José Pérez Ocaña), and their daughters, Joana (Zöe Millán) and Noa (Noa Millán).  The occasion is the imminent sale of the house, which evidently upsets her ex-husband, Carlos (Alberto San Juan), who arrives to talk her out of it, accompanied by his new partner, Blanca (Clara Segura), a psychologist.

Montse’s true motivation is not to sell the house but rather to feel needed.  Yet she has not visited her own mother in some time.

Montse has a penchant for manipulating those around her, though, rationalising the outcomes she wants; setting Marta at odds with David, and Julia at odds with Toni, she provokes several major crises, and at the film’s climax the family togetherness she has sought disintegrates around her.  And that is when she must make her most critical choice.

In its own way, A House on Fire is a largely tragic tale, in that the journeys we would hope to see its lead characters undertake remain merely potential.  Though opportunities present themselves for all the characters to acquire significant insights into themselves, little seems to result, and the climactic final scene reflects a new high in Montse’s already major manipulations.

As well, it is in the film’s first few minutes that Montse strangely overlooks the most natural reason to bring the family together without manipulation but instead makes a bizarre decision sure to arouse condemnation.  The screenwriters doubtless made that decision at least partly to shed light on another facet of her character, but it leaves open the question of why she would do it, and thereby throws doubt on the realism of a tale that otherwise seems written to remain close to believability.

Screening at Palace cinemas.