Asegure a su mujer: Why the 1930s were obsessed with cheating policies

Is this worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a very specific craving for creaky, pre-war romantic comedies where people talk at each other instead of to each other. If you enjoy movies that feel like a stage play that got lost on the way to a theater, you'll be fine. If you hate watching characters make monumentally stupid decisions for the sake of a plot that shouldn't exist, skip this.

The whole premise of Asegure a su mujer is built on a foundation of pure, unadulterated nonsense. Ricardo decides that the best way to save his failing business is to essentially put a price tag on a kiss. It’s the kind of logic that only makes sense in a script written by four different people trying to hit a deadline.

There’s a moment about thirty minutes in where the pacing just hits a wall. The characters stop moving and start lecturing each other on the morality of the policy, and you can almost hear the camera crew checking their watches. It feels like they were trying to be smart, but it just lands as static.

I couldn't help but think about Good Night, Paul while watching this, mainly because they both share that frantic, slightly exhausted energy. It’s the vibe of actors working really hard to make a flimsy premise seem like a life-or-death situation.

The weird little things:

• The wallpaper in the office scenes is distracting. I spent five minutes trying to figure out if it was peeling or just poorly painted.
• The way Ricardo holds his hat when he's nervous? It’s very specific. It’s like he's trying to hide a sandwich inside it.
• The ensemble cast feels way too crowded. There are people in the background of scenes who look like they wandered in from the craft services table.

It’s not a masterpiece. It isn’t even a particularly good time. But there is something strangely hypnotic about seeing how they tried to make these marital dilemmas funny back then. It’s a bit like watching a car crash in slow motion, except the car is made of cardboard and everyone is wearing a tuxedo.

Sometimes the dialogue sparkles, and then five seconds later it sounds like they’re reading from a legal handbook. That’s the real charm of it, I guess. The unevenness is the point. You get these flashes of real wit buried under piles of boring exposition.

It doesn't stick the landing, and the ending feels like they just ran out of film stock and decided to call it a day. But hey, I’ve seen worse. Much worse. 🤷‍♂️