La caja (The Wooden Box)

2007. Spain/Portugal. Written and directed by Juan Carlos Falcón. Based on a novel by Víctor Ramírez. With Ángela Molina, Elvira Minguez, Antonia San Juan, Joan Dalmau. The ensemble of women actresses who dominate Falcón’s film take obvious joy in delivering the well-written dialogue and navigating the script’s clever turns. This outré, wickedly funny melodrama, set under the bright sun of the Canary Islands in the 1960s, explores the effects of one villager’s death on the women around him In Spanish; English subtitles. 107 min.