Rest in Peace 2024 Movie Review
The family had just celebrated in a big way, with lots of guests and a lot of effort. Family father Sergio Duyán ( Joaquín Furriel ) doesn’t actually feel like celebrating. The factory hasn’t been running for a long time and while trying to save it, he has accumulated enormous debts. Now he is in danger of losing everything. His wife Estela ( Griselda Siciliani ) is beside herself, even more so because the children are also affected by the chaos. It’s not even enough to pay school fees anymore. As everything falls apart around them, it is especially Hugo Brenner ( Gabriel Goity ) who worries Sergio. He had also lent him money, which he now wants back, immediately. If this doesn’t happen, something could happen to Sergio’s family, as Brener makes it abundantly clear. The failed entrepreneur desperately looks for a way out until he finds it by chance. But the price for this is high…
Sebastián Borensztein obviously has a heart for the little man who is in a difficult situation and resorts to desperate measures to get out of this situation. A few years ago, in Glorious Losers, the Argentine director told how a group of people wanted to rob a lawyer who had played a part in them losing their money. And his latest work is also about people who are left with nothing and make morally questionable decisions. Rest in Peace, which is available exclusively on Netflix, goes in a different direction, which is why the films can only be compared to a limited extent despite similar themes.
This applies, for example, tonality. Despite the strong genre influences, there was a lot of humor in the title above. After all, those cheated have no experience robbing other people, which leads to some strange situations. In Rest in Peace , on the other hand, you’re unlikely to find anything that makes you laugh. On the contrary, the work is largely a drama that tells of a man in crisis and a family that is falling apart. One moment they’re partying and dancing, the next moment everything blows up in their faces. Of course, the protagonist contributed to this through his questionable decisions. What’s a little strange is that his wife doesn’t seem to have noticed any of this, even though he has debts all around him. But there is less credibility in the film.
Instead, Borensztein’s goal is to create tension. From the beginning, the tragedy of the family potentially losing everything is linked to an element of threat. This particularly applies to Brenner, who is immediately introduced as a dark and unscrupulous fellow. How he otherwise earns his money is not revealed. But it’s certainly not entirely legal, otherwise he wouldn’t have all the thugs he sends to family celebrations. The character is not particularly interesting; he actually corresponds to the cliché of the criminal loan shark. But it works, especially since it lays the foundation for the actual story of Rest in Peace that the title alludes to.
The twist is quite interesting, also because it brings with it some interesting moral questions. And also the one about proportionality: Is it worth it? The tragedy is further heightened when the family is forced to lead a completely different life. Here too, the credibility is not very high, you don’t have to understand some decisions. But it’s gripping enough to keep you watching until the end. Since Rest in Peace relies heavily on escalation and it remains unclear until the end how far this will all go, you can still be curious and excited.
“Rest in Peace” is a mixture of family drama and thriller when a man gets so indebted that everything threatens to collapse. That’s not exactly credible. Due to the constant escalation, the novel adaptation is exciting enough to keep you going until the end.
