4.5/5
Maite Alberdi’s The Mole Agent is such a charming and delightful little documentary – filled with so much warmth and melancholy sadness. This undercover “spy” film is filled with delightful noir touches – from the high contrast lighting during Sergio’s “reporting” to his boss, to the way our 84-year-old mole trails his targets in the retirement home and attempts to be inconspicuous, but (as one of the few lucid male residents in the facility) is chatted up by all of the women who pass by. As charming and funny as the film can be, it also quickly reveals the aching loneliness of aging and the ways that we in so many societies warehouse our elderly. Sergio becomes our window into a world and a community that few of us have ventured into for any extended period of time. Alberdi’s genius is situating this all within a playful framework that allows for more depth and emotion to show through.
