Under Her Control

(2022) Under Her Control/ La Jefa (In Spanish with English subtitles) THRILLER/ DRAMA

It opens with a "A Devil Wears Prada" scenario when a young lady, Sofia (Cumelen Sanz) is applying for a job as intern/ secretary for a popular clothing designer, Beatriz (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). When she lands the job, she prioritizes working for her idol, Beatriz over moving to a different city when her boyfriend, Naco (Alex Pastrana) wants to relocate some place else. Then Sofia finds out she is expecting, telling no one else other than her boss Beatriz particularly not her boyfriend, Naco. Because Beatriz is unable to get prenant herself, she then makes a proposal to Sofia to surrogate the child to her for a price. She agrees but with a heavy financial price. Only then Beatriz would then convince Sofia to seclude herself living in an isolated house to protect the pregnancy with a Vietnamese maid to provide Sofia with everything she needs. And it was at the start of this point, I liked the movie much less. It just became more absurd, dumb and stupid.

It is incredible how one movie can radically change from being good, well directed, strong characters, personalities, even intriguing to absolutely none sense, the ending made no sense at all, to the point that I really don't know what the writer was trying to say, but it felt offensive to women, we are just irrational people, crazy hormonal and irrational. The plot was a bit ambiguous too it has some undeveloped subjects, it has some scenes that don't go anywhere. But aside all this, I think it's worth your time watching this film because the acting is good and the production, they just lose it at the end, you end up scratching your head and thinking what the hell just happened?

Although you see low rating, its a very good movie. I feel that the low ratings are just disapproval for not meeting personal expectations, which is ok, This not a thriller or entertainment or comedy. This can be interesting for people who is interested in psychology and philosophy. Its caricature depiction of a common scenario that happens with human beings. That is, even when everything in your life is going well, simple irrational emotions within people like, doubt, suspicion, greed etc can lead you to do things that will ruin your life and the life of people around you. When you watch as a third person you always have this itching in your heart asking why , why is she doing this? I could relate to lot real life scenarios throughout my life that has the central theme of this movie.

Having a boss that has done things that you may not do to come and stay on top of things (no pun intended), is not the easiest thing. Of course there is an added bonus to things - if you have read what happens or what the movie is really about, you know what I mean. And the beginning with the two lovers makes even more sense in that context. Also the fact that we see our main female (hero?) character nude. Yes not all bed sheets cover female breasts while leaving mens upper body uncovered ... just saying.

If you have issues with a fairly small scene because of that, maybe this isn't for you. But this is not about that, the movie has way more out there scenes that you may take issues with. And they do not have anything to do with nudity. If you are able to, you may see this from both sides and sort of understand certain decisions ... at least to a certain degree. It is tough and depending on your morals ... well you'll see. The movie is quite predictable for some I would assume, but no brownie points if you guess certain twists .. it had to happen that way now didn't it?

It's an alright film. It kept me engaged and I wanted to know what was going to happen. I like the message this film sends. More often than we think, people we know might allow a new, short lived thrill or excitement to manipulate their lives. Their impulses will drive them to push the people who love them away. They can go as far as ruining their entire lives. I would have hoped for more details, suspense and action happening, but then I realized that the writer could have just been trying to send that simple message. I have seen worse thrillers on Netflix. Was it a thriller? Yeah. Did it entertain? I guess yeah. Average.