You’re Killing Me Susana

At CineLatino, the Latin American film festival, I watched, You’re Killing Me Susana, starring Gael Garcia Bernal. As always, his performance is charming and the movie has an abundance of affable comedy. But his character and the story is not endearing. He is an unfaithful and selfish husband who does not take any interest in his wife and her writing. He is disparaging of her teaching, which supplements her writing aspirations. He has repeatedly talked his wife out of going away on writing trips because he is suspicious and jealous.

We learn he has previously followed her on a writing retreat and made it impossible for her to get work done. We see this behaviour play out in the movie. He has been cheating on her and is angry when she leaves suddenly without warning. He stalks her from Mexico until he tracks her down in the USA. She had been awarded a scholarship for a writing workshop. He shows up unannounced and causes a scene at every opportunity.

She repeatedly tries to leave him. He physically restrains her at one stage; he yells and swears at her; he sits in all her classes; he cheats on her again and follows her across the country once she leaves. He is a controlling and therefore abusive partner. But we are encouraged to empathise with him – he “loves” her.

The character is supposedly “romantic.” And although in his late 30s, the film centres on her forgiveness of his flaws. He just needs to “lose” her (wife are the property of husbands after all) and she will be change her mind written he grows up by the end of the film. This trope is familiar to people in abusive relationships.

I’d seen the director in an interview say the film explores masculinity, though it unfortunately reinforces a tired trope, that abuse is love. The film does not manage to explore deeply toxic masculinity.