Bunker was not what I expected out of the TIFF 2026 lineup, but I was mostly drawn to the cast. This was the first time the real-life couple, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz, played a married couple together, and their chemistry was perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed Stephen Graham’s neighbourly role, while Patrick Schwarzenegger and Paul Dano were just there doing their part. It felt like the supporting cast were simply acting, but Bardem, Cruz, and Graham were doing an acting masterclass.
Bunker follows a fairly well-off couple, Sofia (Cruz) and Miguel (Bardem). Sofia is a literary agent for a publishing house while her husband is a famous reclusive architect, raising two children. Things take a turn when a mysterious billionaire asks Miguel to design a so-called doomsday bunker, which causes a trial of ethics for their own marriage. To make matters worse, their new London home neighbour has been up to some suspicious construction behaviour.
Bunker was almost a chamber drama-thriller, mostly for Bardem’s character—since he was a stay-at-home parent and did all his work from home. He and Cruz verbally duked it out in this film, leaving audiences guessing whether they would break up until the very end. In a way, this was similar to The Invite, where a couple faced a major pain point in their relationship—leading to some critical conversations. Between a suspicious neighbour and a tempting offer, the tensions rose fairly well and allowed the two leads to shine with their raw dialogue. It was like watching a tennis match where every game and set went to deuce.
I felt like Bardem and Cruz’s performances were heightened in Bunker because they could speak in their native Spanish tongue too, allowing them to bring out all the emotions in their words. But also, I enjoyed their charming jokes and comedic timing. Like many couples or people who speak another language in an English-speaking environment, they do the classic thing and say some quips in Spanish so English speakers cannot understand them.
The sound design and score helped build the uneasiness in Bunker as well. I could tell it was Volker Bertelmann with his experimental musical compositions. Bertelmann’s recent feature films Pressure and Verity sounded reserved, but Bunker allowed him to let loose again. It was some strong orchestral work like what he did for Conclave. I did not expect Billie Eilish’s When the Party’s Over to have a solid impact in the story, but here we are.
As the score began to spiral, the loud pounding and drilling sounds throughout the first act or two were almost giving one’s sensitivity to all sounds during a hangover after a night of gallivanting. The sledgehammer sound to open the film was thunderously loud, beating into my chest. Then, the construction sounds were droning on in the background, which was a clever way to annoy both Miguel and the audience.
I had two major gripes with Bunker: the message of the film became muddied, and the third act was both fast and disappointing. The whole movie, I had it in the back of my mind: “Oh, Miguel’s mind has become a metaphorical bunker of itself.” Of course, this also meant that Miguel was becoming so closed off that even Sofia felt like the romantic rift was growing between them. The climactic events that take place in the final act did not come out of nowhere, but they almost resulted in the same outcome as the end of the movie Fjord.
“I had two major gripes with Bunker: the message of the film became muddied, and the third act was both fast and disappointing.”
By the time we see the final shot of the film, I thought that this was the perfect artistic ending to Bunker. However, the journey to get here was a tad too long, the wrap-up of the final act was way too quick, and it reached a somewhat simple ending. It was as if director Florian Zeller wanted to gift-wrap this film with a bow, but the gift was a fruit basket filled with fruits beginning to spoil. The non-linear storytelling in the opening act was a good party trick, but not good enough in retrospect to justify the overall entertainment value of the film.
Bunker had a strong opening with great acting all around, but failed to make the journey worth it. For a film that was meant to create some hot-boiling water arguments, they ended up being hot at the beginning of the film—simmering down by the start of the third act. With some tighter editing, this movie could have hit a bit harder. For those looking for another experience like The Invite, minus Seth Rogen’s antics, you should find parts of this film entertaining.
