It all starts with young parents Jesús (David Pareja) and María (Estefanía de los Santos) fighting over whether or not to get a(n actually pretty ugly) coffee table with an, according to the salesman (Eduardo Antuńa) unbreakable table top. Ultimately, Jesús gets his will and gets the table after claiming María got her will with everything else, including naming their son Cayetano. Once home though and trying to put the table together, Jesús notices a screw is missing, and thus he leaves the table top leaning against the table's structure. As Jesús's brother Carlos (Josep Maria Riera) and his new girlfriend Cristina (Claudia Riera) are to come by this evening, María has to leave to do some shopping, and while Jesús tries to get the baby to sleep, he stumbles, falls right into the "unbreakable" table top, which immediately breaks, and he cuts his finger while the baby's head is sliced right off. Of course, Jesús is properly shocked, but when María calls from the shop, he's unable to tell her, instead he removes all the traces of what has happened, tries to wash off even the blood stains (with moderate success), changes the diapers of the headless baby and puts him to bed - and when María returns he claims the baby has just gone to sleep and needs some quiet - still trying to find a way out of the situation. And María sure has a good laugh when he tells her the unbreakable table top has broken, much to his distress. And the distress only multiply when Carlos and Cristina arrive and reveal that Cristina is pregnant. But things come to a head when 13 year old neighbour's daughter Ruth (Gala Flores) arrives, making baseless claims she and Jesús are having an affair. Problem is, she has a dog, and the baby's head is still somewhere in the living room ...

Ok, this is not a film for everyone, this film is a comedy as dark as they come, and one needs to have a coal black sense of humour to properly enjoy The Coffee Table - in other words, I liked it very much, as despite its very bleak premise, it's built up very beautifully, goes from one unexpected and macabre punchline to the next while deriving its tension from really just waiting what will it be that will break Jesús while things are mounting. And a directorial effort that doesn't go for the gruesomeness but the delicacy of the situation, as well as a first rate cast carry the film rather beautifully, making this one of the most disturbing and nevertheless enjoyable comedies in years.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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