Miss Mary

Miss Mary (Christie) is a lonely, starchy English governess whose recollections of her time in the employ of a wealthy Buenos Aires family provide insights into the type of spiritual malaise which is induced by an excess of cash. The father (Pavlovsky) spends much of the time at the billiard table; the mother (Guevara) is a fixture at the piano, playing melancholy Satie. The period is the late '30s/early '40s, and some acknowledgment of the shifting political scene as the Peron regime approaches filters through in after-dinner conversations or in the street disturbances which interrupt Miss Mary's thoughts. There's a sense of impending doom for the family, but the camera maintains a distance inhibiting our involvement, and even Miss Mary's testimony is thrown into question by the Catholic/Victorian upbringing which has left her almost as emotionally sterile as her employers. It's not an enjoyable film, rambling at times, but it deserves attention for its faithful reflection of the suffocating emptiness of a repressive way of life.