In the City

Altman's Short Cuts has a lot to answer for. The 'urban intersections' sub-genre, while sometimes potent (Magnolia, City of Hope), is too often an easy option for film-makers eager to try their hand at a wide canvas vision of modern life. In the City, writer/director Gay's follow-up to the well-received two-hander Krámpack, is a typical example. As generic as its title, this ensemble tale of middle class Barcelona couples and their friends is undemandingly watchable without ever managing to assert its own identity or flavour. The broader comic touches and subplots work best, but otherwise this is a largely uninvolving peek into a narrow, well-heeled stratum of today's Catalan thirty-somethings.