Summer Clouds

How do you know if your marriage is secure until someone tries to test it? This is the question writer/director Felipe Vega asks as we watch a couple toy with adultery.

Ana (Natalia Millan) and Daniel (Roberto Enrique) take their son on their annual pilgrimage to the Costa Brava - for the fourth year in a row. This year is different, though, as things, while ticking along on the surface, seem strained.

You sense it could get tough for the couple anyway - but they are about to be led down the path to temptation, thanks to cousins Marta (Irene Montala) and Robert (David Selvas), who live in the town and enter into a bizarre pact to try to bed the opposite halves of the couple.

Vega's film is simultaneously comical and unsettling. Like the summer clouds, they could just scud on by, or bring forth a deluge. There are elements of farce here as the distinctly creepy Robert holds his cousin in thrall over their agreement and plants the seed of doubt in Daniel's mind, while more serious drama is provied by Marta, who is torn between going along with the ruse and confessing all.

It's the seeming ease with which it is possible to create doubt and jealousy that is scary. What initially seems farfetched starts to morph into a strong possibility, as Robert makes mischief simply because he can.

The acting is understated and engaging but, as the film progresses, the plot becomes slightly fanciful. The couple sense that they are being toyed with and yet do nothing about it, which pushes the credibility boundary almost to breaking point and meltdown of belief is only avoided by the cast's underplaying of the tension.