This is a superb film that catches you completely by surprise. It is very disarming in the way the story is told because it is so casual and nonchalant, so much so that when the reality of what actually happens hits you it is really something. Talk about surprise! It's like a slug to the gut and you sit there trying to catch your breath wondering how something like this could have happened and you never saw it coming. Actually, in retrospect, there were clues, really obvious clues but somehow they are ignored until the film is over and you start to piece it all together and realize the unimaginable has happened. The central figure in the story is the woman and everything revolves around her but she is a complete mouse, always agreeable, hardly a threat to anyone until all hell breaks loose and she turns out to be a tsunami.

Why the title? Because they said Whisky when we'd say cheese for a photograph smile. I wonder if that's true or just for the movie? The factory owner Jacobo needs a wife and it seems to me this is because he actually has one and his brother will expect to see her, but we only hear of her once - when Marta is at Jacobo's home and "his wife" phones asking for him. Marta puts down the phone and that's it for the wife - enough to explain Jacobo's need for Marta's co-operation.Spoilers follow It's not too difficult to guess how the story ensues and it isn't a story for startling surprises. It's sort of every day and yet not, and poignant. Marta makes a mistake that may just indicate to the brother that she isn't Jacobo's wife - one time Jacobo said they honeymooned in Brazil, but later Marta says if she could afford it she'd have a holiday in Brazil. Unlike cold, emotionless Jacobo, the brother is a nice guy who clearly loves his chilly brother and comes to like Marta too. I felt this significant once we'd reached the ending.As for the ending, don't read on unless you want to know it but I just loved it. Every day, several times in the movie, Marta waits for Jacobo to open the factory. After the brother has gone home and Jacobo has paid Marta (rather a lot of money that his brother gave him out of guilt as well as friendship), Marta doesn't thank Jacobo by continuing in her job. She doesn't turn up. Are we surprised? Jacobo used her with cold ruthlessness whilst she was I would guess fond of him. But we reckon we know where's she's gone.......... spending the money in Brazil. Good for Marta! You can be used just once too often and then you rebel, that's the moral of the story.Splendid movie, very pleased I watched it.

This droll, deadpan comedy from Uruguay, clearly influenced by directors such as Jarmusch and Kaurismaki, is a real find. Directors Rebella (who killed himself shortly after this film was released) and Stoll, tell the story of two middle aged Jewish brothers. The elder brother has remained in Uruguay, running a decrepit sock factory, and acts taciturn and resentful, feeling life has cheated on him. The younger, more easy going brother, has moved to Brazil, where he has raised a family and runs a successful textile factory in the Sao Paulo area. When their mother dies, the brother in Brazil returns to Uruguay for the funeral. So that his younger brother will not pity him, his older brethren asks a middle aged, somewhat plump employee to pretend to be with his wife when his brother returns (this plot point is not really very believable, but in the cinema you sort of accept it). There is little else plot wise to the movie, as the brothers and the fake wife tour some of the deserted, sunless beaches of Uruguay to kill time and to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with each other as well as to settle past scores. To those that thing South America is everywhere a tropical and exotic place, they might be surprised to see a movie that is somewhat reminiscent of the old Eastern Bloc movies (Uruguay is well to the south of the tropics, its climate is temperate, and is the least typically south American of Spanish speaking nations in the continent). In a way, this movie might be also be a metaphor of Uruguay, once a country that was called the Switzerland of South America for its democracy and progressivism, but that in the last few decades has seen nasty military dictatorships, and some of its infrastructure and social capital run down. Worth seeing and quite moving.

It is the best movie I've seen in the recent years. Althoguh It seems a local movie telling about Uruguay and the neighborhood it tells more than this. And It makes this movie universal. I love the casting. especially Martha and his boss.They play very well and this eliminates the slowness of the film. the slowness is made on purpose showing our routine life.. It is a pity that the directors of the movie passed away which eliminated the artistic contribution of them in the cinema and our life as well. I watched this movie on DVD. Because In Turkey this movie is shown only in the Film festival. I am lucky that I can find this movie's DVD and watch. I advise everyone to see this movie.