The Mole Agent (Maite Alberdi, 2020) (Patreon)

An unconventional documentary in a number of respects, The Mole Agent is effortlessly entertaining and often quite touching. But it seems that some critics find the film uniquely untrustworthy. Part of this is the usual suspicion of heartwarming material, a tendency of critics to police the boundary where sentiment may ooze over into schmaltz. The Mole Agent is a film about senior citizens, and at its center is a charismatic but admittedly amusing one, Sergio Chamy. The film does get a bit of mileage out of typical "old person" humor, such as Sergio's lack of facility with technology, or his propensity for rumination and color commentary when, as a participant-observer, he's supposed to be delivering terse, Jack Webbian rundowns.

You see, Chamy has been hired by a private investigator to go undercover as a resident at a retirement home in Chile. A woman has hired the P.I. to find out if her mother, a recent admit to the home, might be suffering neglect. So the genesis of The Mole Agent project is admittedly based on the droll improbability of a wry, affable grandpa taking on a late-life position as a spy. One of the notable "inside jokes" of The Mole Agent, a refrain among the mostly-female residents of the home, is that Sergio is an object of lust and fascination. But part of his appeal, clearly, is that he is fully sentient, walking unassisted, and fully continent.

Some critics have also taken issue with the formal organization of The Mole Agent. Sergio's undercover exploits are documented by Alberdi's film crew on the pretext that they are filming a documentary about aging in Chile. Now, this level of reflexivity, which is occasionally apparent but not really emphasized, clearly gives the game away. There is no abuse or neglect happening at the retirement home, or else they would never allow a camera crew inside. Anyone expecting Titicut Follies is sure to be disappointed, and Sergio's spying (which includes secret camerawork and recordings) confirms that the home, while hardly the Ritz, is an above-board operation.

What Sergio and The Mole Agent actually "reveal," then, is something far more quotidian. The residents of the home are lonely and bored. Most of their families have forgotten about them. In fact, as Sergio ruefully remarks, even the woman who hired the investigator to check up on the place never came to see her mother during the three months he was undercover. Yes, some personal items go missing, but that's because one woman, who has regressed to the mental level of a young child, goes into people's rooms and takes things. The staff are not thieves, as the client suspected. 

Alberdi's previous documentary, The Grown-Ups, was about an assisted living facility for adults with Down Syndrome. While some found that film too "cute" as well, it too took a hard look at the marginalized population's struggle for self-determination and dignity. The new film is very much in that same spirit. The "secret agent" element of The Mole Agent may seem anticlimactic. But it actually serves a clear purpose. Only a senior citizen, with his perspective, would understand that any problems with the residence center are systemic, and have everything to do with society's disregard for the aged. The "cute old man" element may be the hook, but the film's conclusions are far more downbeat. We have met the abusers, and they are us.

P.S.: Congrats to Gravitas Ventures for somehow snagging a film that is not a complete piece of shit.