A new film by French writer-director Florian Zeller, his first original screenplay rather than an adaptation of his stage plays, stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem as a Spanish couple living in London. The film has been criticized for feeling shallow and unfulfilling, lacking the emotional depth and authenticity that marked Zeller’s earlier works, such as The Father (2021) and The Son (2022). While the film touches on themes of alienation and inequality, these ideas are presented metaphorically and are said to lack a compelling or original perspective. The central relationship between the couple is underdeveloped, with much of the narrative shifting toward suspenseful home-invasion elements. However, one long scene of a marital argument was noted as a potential highlight, suggesting what the film might have achieved if it had focused more on the couple’s relationship. Cruz and Bardem play Sofia and Miguel, a stylish Spanish couple with two teenage daughters who have relocated to London. Sofia works as a book editor and has taken a job managing a UK publisher’s foreign literature in translation. Miguel is a renowned architect who claims he can work in any city. The film hints that he may have designed the modernist extension to their attractive Victorian home. Their relationship starts off happy but becomes strained when Miguel is approached by a tech billionaire (played by Paul Dano) to design a luxurious survivalist bunker in Hawaii. Sofia is against the project, arguing that the billionaire is responsible for the very issues he now wants to escape. Miguel, tempted by the large fee, faces conflict with Sofia. Meanwhile, Sofia becomes close to a young author (Patrick Schwarzenegger) during a period of depression, while Miguel has a heated argument with their working-class neighbor (Stephen Graham), who installed a window overlooking his garden without permission. The film suggests that Miguel may be isolating himself in a metaphorical "bunker" of snobbery and emotional detachment. Zeller has cited influences such as Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut and Daniel Auteuil and Juliette Binoche in Michael Haneke’s Hidden. The film includes some lighter moments, such as a sharp cameo by Eileen Atkins and a comedic sequence in which Miguel installs fog cannons to deter intruders—only to find them ineffective. The agent (Mark Gatiss) representing the billionaire is exasperated by Miguel’s indecision, and the film implies that the morally right choice for Miguel would be to reject the project and return to a less exciting but more ethical job designing a hospital in Munich. Some critics have suggested that the film could have been more ambitious, with a stronger confrontation with the billionaire, a more intense marital conflict, and a clearer depiction of the film’s climactic event. Overall, the film has been described as a disappointment, failing to fully explore its themes or capitalize on the strong performances of its lead actors. While it has its moments of humor and style, it lacks the emotional resonance and narrative depth that defined Zeller’s previous work.