"Devil Between The Legs" -- Movie Review

 

This week at The Museum Of Modern Art’s Virtual Cinema, I streamed the Mexican drama, “Devil Between The Legs”. 

Synopsis

When a long-time married couple begin cheating on each other, will their marriage survive?

Story

Is it possible to be married too long?  If so, maybe Beatriz and her husband have been married too long.  Their relationship is the textbook definition of dysfunctional.  Decades ago, she was open and honest with him about her past – her romances were both capacious and capricious.  He has never forgotten this.  And now, in their later years, he is holding this against her.  They no longer sleep in the same bed.  In fact, they no longer sleep in the same room.  Both sleep alone.  He daily reproaches her about her past indiscretions and constantly accuses her of cheating on him – details of which she documents in a diary. 

Thankfully, Dinorah is there.  Dinorah is their maid – a young woman who cares for both of them since their adult children have moved away and no longer see them.  Although Dinorah must suffer shabby treatment from Beatriz, she remains loyal to this couple – especially The Old Man.  An observer of their behavior, she makes every attempt to refuse to be dragged into their drama so she can simply do her job.  But there are things she has observed – most notably, the fact that Beatriz periodically sneaks away claiming to go to the gym.  In truth, she is attending tango lessons; she wears high heels and a fancy dress to dance flirtatiously with a married man. 

The Old Man also has his own follies.  In the afternoon, he skulks off into town to meet with a woman who runs a beauty parlor; despite the fact that she is also married, the two have been enjoying their trysts with her cuckolded husband’s knowledge.  Quite by accident, Dinorah learns of this, but doesn’t readily reveal it to Beatriz, who has suddenly been thrown out of her tango class due to complaints from her dance partner.  With no outlet left in her life, Beatriz threatens to leave The Old Man.  Can Dinorah somehow solve this problem or will the couple finally divorce?      

Review

“Devil Between The Legs” is an extraordinarily odd and compelling movie about the debilitating effects of both aging and marriage.  What does it mean to still have an exuberant libido in your advanced years?  Is it a blessing?  A curse?  Or maybe a little bit of both?  Whichever it may be, it seems as though this couple’s foreplay takes the form of emotionally torturing each other.  By this time, it seems as though the two take delight in making their mate miserable – but at this point, they realize they are stuck with each other.  With no better options, they are forced to remain together.      

Like seeing any kind of unusual video clip on social media, you can’t summon the discipline to look away once you start watching “Devil Between The Legs”.   Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is somewhat up for debate.  The movie starts out seeming to be just an observational drama – a slice of life, or perhaps more accurately, slice of a couple of really bizarre lives.  But after a while, you come to realize that the film truly does have a three-act structure – maybe the only thing about it that could be considered the least bit conventional – with a twist ending that’s a doozy.     

As far as technical aspects are concerned, the entire film is shot in black and white.  One might speculate that the reason for this is that like the couple in the movie, black and white is “old school”.  Regardless of what the reason is, this makes it difficult to read the subtitles which, of course, are in white.  Another challenge to reading the subtitles is that many of them flash by so quickly, they’re off the screen before you can finish reading them.  Being a speed-reader may not necessarily be a prerequisite for watching this motion picture, but it definitely wouldn’t hurt.