The Odd-Job Men

Directed by Neus Ballús, The Odd-Job Men follows a couple of plumbers (Pep Sarrà’s Pep and Valero Escolar’s Valero) as they welcome a new electrician (Mohamed Mellali’s Moha) into their ranks. Director Ballús, working from a screenplay written with Margarita Melgar, delivers a very gentle and lighthearted drama that ultimately fares best in its low-key yet mostly watchable first half, as the movie benefits substantially from the affable efforts of its actors and the initially appealing bent of the characters’ exploits. It’s clear, however, that The Odd-Job Men‘s repetitive structure paves the way for a midsection that inevitably proves a test to one’s patience and ongoing interest, and there’s little doubt, as well, that the exceedingly (and excessively) slight atmosphere does become awfully tough to take past a certain point (ie one starts to crave just a little substance, eventually). The continuing inclusion of cute but pointless digressions (eg Moha agrees to model for pictures at one point) only compounds the picture’s less-than-enthralling feel, to be sure, while the abrupt finale ensures that the whole thing finishes on a forgettable and thoroughly underwhelming note – with the end result a well-meaning endeavor that never, at any point, manages to add up to much.

** out of ****