LA COMUNIDAD is as much a horror movie as it is a comedy, starring Carmen Maura as a middle aged real estate agent who decides to stay in an apartment property she is currently showing in order to take advantage of some of the luxuries within (waterbed, etc). In the process of pulling off this little con, she inadvertantly causes the other residents to think she lives there, and stumbles across a fortune in a neigboring dead guy's apartment.
From the outset, it's clear there's something going on in the apartment building -- the other tenants seem to keep a watchful eye on our heroine and also seem to be preoccupied with the apartment of the recently deceased neighbor. At first I was wondering if there was a supernatural element at play here, but SPOILER WARNING -- it turns out they're all out to get the money, and to get it away from the real estate agent.
The greatest strength of this film is the central performance by Carmen Maura. It's a pity how rare it is to see a character like her -- she's a middle aged woman, kind of down on her luck, with a loser boyfriend, but ultimately plucky, resourceful, capable and confident. She keeps her sense of humor and wits about her as things spiral out of control and won't be dissuaded from her scheme to escape the apartment building with her newly found money intact. She's allowed to be sexual and adventurous and human. She's not just a one dimensional stock movie woman.
My only complaint might be that towards the end some of the violent scenes are more brutal than I think the tone of the first half of the film sets up. Maybe it was hard to watch just because I loved our heroine so much, or maybe the level of violence at play wasn't quite earned by the movie. Still, that's just a minor complaint as the film comes to a satisfying conclusion and our heroine perseveres.
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