What We Wrote Together [Lo que escribimos juntos] *** (2024, Santiago Magariños, Ezequiel Martinez, Nazarena Rozas) – Classic Movie Review 13,227

The 2024 Argentine film What We Wrote Together is sophisticated polished drama, middle class gay angst that rivets the attention. 

Director Nicolás Teté’s 2024 Argentine film What We Wrote Together is sophisticated polished drama, middle class gay angst at its least edgy. It’s a film without thrills or excitement, and it is discreet as a film comes, in fact actually nothing happens, but it rivets the attention anyway.

Mariano (Santiago Magariños) and Juan (Ezequiel Martinez) are in a quiet place, the one they have quite recently sought out and established for themselves. They have been a couple for six years, and they have a little dog and a quiet life in the countryside, where the locals probably aren’t that keen on gays. No matter about the neighbours. They can just get on with it too.

Mariano has always wanted to have a small plant nursery away from the big city of Buenos Aires and they decide to relocate now that Juan’s work as a writer is established after the success of his latest novel, a very personal story, apparently drawing mostly, at least in an encrypted way, on his life with Mariano. Have they made a mistake? Should they never have moved? Do they want different things? Do they still want each other? Both of them? Is Juan’s writing going to destroy them?

It should all be calm and idyllic. But, while they adjust to their new space and their new routines, they are visited by Juan’s sassy and spiky, rather chilly best friend Carla (Nazarena Rozas), who has news to tell them: she’s pregnant. Her visit leads to lots of questions that put the cat among the pigeons in the delicate balance of the men’s loving relationship. As time goes by in a long-lasting relationship, things seem to get more rather than less complicated, apparently. The men behave like they are in their fifties rather than their twenties, having a midlife crisis. It’s maybe a bit self indulgent of them, but, still, it’s there, it’s real. It’s what they feel, and it’s everything to them. Other than their silly dog, they only have each other. Is it enough? Is it too much. Too stifling? Is it too dangerous? They are free men, but are they really free? Are they really living the lives they need or desire?

What We Wrote Together is a quiet, low[key reflective, articulate film, warm, wise and so real it’s sometimes painful. The two actors seemingly effortlessly convince that they know each other intimately inside and out. Their characters are made for each other, but something starts to get in the way, something hard to define or articulate. Their moods suddenly change rapidly, even dangerously for their relationship. They start to turn on each other, though very politely. There are lots of words, but it is all about the space between the words. What is going on exactly? Articulate though they are, the men can’t seem to work it out. Or can they?

What We Wrote Together makes it 100 per cent worthwhile finding out. Thank you to the two actors and the director’s screenplay. If these are great, what more do you need. With almost surgical precision, it digs deep into the balance of a gay relationship to find out how it works. It asks all the right questions and it comes up with most all of the answers.

Internet premiere: October 22, 2024.

UK DVD release: October 28, 2024.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,227

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