Spanish superstars Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz team up once again on screen in Bunker, the story of a wealthy married couple whose union is put to the test after an unusual work proposal. Premiering in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival, it’s a film that could easily work on stage, with so much taking place in the sleek, modernist London home that Miguel (Bardem) and his wife of 17 years Sofia (Cruz) share with their two young daughters.

The third English-language film in a row by French playwright Florian Zeller, following award-winning Alzheimer’s drama The Father (2020) and the Hugh Jackman-starrer The Son (2022), at least he didn’t title this 'The Holy Ghost' (sorry). The bunker in question arises after Miguel, a successful Spanish architect who has been living in London for years, is offered a unique proposal: to build an underground living quarters in Hawaii, enough to house 30 people, for a Silicon Valley titan (Paul Dano, in a lovely cameo).

The resources to create this monstrosity will be unlimited, and naturally Miguel is tempted. Who wouldn’t be? Sofia, an editor in the foreign literature department of a British publishing firm, is less keen, however. And not just because building the bunker will take Miguel away from the family for months. She finds it sickening that a billionaire would build an impregnable home that only the chosen few will get to live in, while whatever future catastrophe is ravaging the planet is going on above ground. "What would be the point in surviving if everyone else is dead?" she asks.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Miguel is locked in an argument with his neighbour Toby (Stephen Graham), an aggressive, tattoo-clad chap who has seemingly inherited a small garage that backs onto the garden of Miguel and Sofia’s luxury home. Without asking, he decided to employ a builder to smash through the adjoining wall, so he can create a window and let more light in as he turns it into a studio. Quite rightly, Miguel is affronted, but tries to handle it calmly – at first.

Then there’s Patrick Schwarzenegger, who features as a New York writer who has come over to promote his new book ‘In a Hundred Years’ – a piece of writing that unsettles Sofia in her marriage to Miguel. "I don’t recognise us anymore," she cries, as things come to a head. Bringing this to life, Bardem and Cruz, who have been married for 16 years, almost as long as their characters, are perfectly in synch, as you’d expect.

Certainly, Zeller plays with some interesting ideas, about privilege, wealth and the ivory towers (or bunkers) that rich people build. But the symbolism of the piece is so heavy-handed, bordering on pretentious, it never truly convinces. Imagine if Michel Franco, director of 2020’s New Order, had made this.

In particular, the way he shoots Miguel and Sofia in the home never feels authentic, almost as if he’s filming a lifestyle commercial. Their well-to-do existence – art galleries, five-star restaurants – also feels bland and cookie-cutter. Put that against Graham, who feels like he belongs in an entirely different film, as if he’s reprising his character from This Is England, and it collapses inwards.

Then there are plot points that don’t convince, like the moment Toby promises to put a tarp over the hole he’s created. Curiously, when Miguel discovers it, it’s somehow been erected on his side of the wall, but there’s no indication of how Toby did that. Veering between satire and psychological thriller, Bunker doesn’t really satisfy in either arena. While it’s occasionally funny – a scene with fog cannons is very amusing – it’s never enough to power you through.

Bunker will be screening at the BFI London Film Festival 2026 from 10 October.

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