Language Lessons movie review (2021)

Morales and Duplass star in this tight 91-minute dramedy, which plays out entirely through phone and laptop screens. That method has become more and more common during the pandemic (in films like “Profile” and “Untitled Horror Movie”), and during this time, projects about the tension between our social media lives and our “real” lives have also flourished (“Mainstream,” “Clickbait”). “Language Lessons” strikes a balance between these two visual and thematic approaches. The film begins with a surprise: Cariño (Morales) has been secretly hired by a man named Will (Desean Terry) to teach Spanish to his husband Adam (Duplass). It’s a big investment for both Adam in Oakland and Cariño in Costa Rica: 100 lessons conducted online, which is basically two years of weekly classes. They have to get along, right?

Not only do Adam and Cariño get along, but they become fast friends. Adam is already quite conversational in Spanish because of a childhood spent in Mexico, and so his and Cariño’s first lesson is more relaxed than instructional. He worries that he’s mansplaining, and the two share a laugh when trying to come up with a Spanish version of the concept. He worries that his and Will’s large house and clearly well-off lifestyle might be off-putting for Cariño, and tries to explain that the couple has only really come into money in the past few years. And when Adam insists that he is “embarazado,” Cariño gets the opportunity to correct his Spanish and emphasize that her lessons won’t be provided in vain.

When an unexpected tragedy strikes, the pair’s bond becomes deeper. They talk constantly, trading messages back and forth outside of their lesson time. They unexpectedly share details of their lives. Their lessons veer further and further away from educational content, and more and more toward genuine friendship. But how much do they really know about each other? The way Adam switches up the locations from which he calls Cariño—his home’s many rooms, his sauna, his pool, his hot tub, his balcony, his large property—projects a certain image, as does the fact that Cariño only ever calls from one room in her home or from outside. Could their presumed class differences affect their relationship? What about the details Cariño divulges to Adam about her other students, or the details Adam divulges about his life before he realized he was gay? How does a bond that started out professionally become complicated, or even compromised, when other emotions develop?

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