Cannes 2026 – The Loved One: a masterful film (review)

Rodrigo Sorogoyen abandons the thriller for a face-to-face between a filmmaker father (Bardem) and his actress daughter (Luengo) whom he has not seen for years. And successfully entered the Cannes competition with flying colors.

It starts with a delay. A young woman pushes open the door of a restaurant at 1:05 p.m. His father has been waiting for him for five minutes. Five minutes is nothing. Except that we can already sense a tension in the back of Bardem’s neck, a disturbance in the way Luengo crosses the room. The film will last two hours and this delay, this distance, says it all. Father and daughter haven’t seen each other for a long time. They try to talk to each other. Can’t do it. Succeeds for a few seconds, before failing again. A true piece of bravery, the scene stretches for twenty minutes, and the spectator remains at a distance as if he were looking through a window at a scene that he should not have surprised. When they get up at the end, we start breathing again. We just watched two people try to find each other and it became unbearable.

The entire film will be held on this line which is reminiscent of Bergman or Pialat. Bardem is a renowned filmmaker who finds his daughter and offers her the lead role in his film. But the filming will only be a setting, because The loved one is not a film about cinema. It’s a film about two characters who have to live in the same room. A film about faces and time (the one that has passed and the one that remains to meet again).

The filmmaker films the duration as one tightens a rope: just enough for it to vibrate, never enough for it to break. He stretches the scenes, waits for the bodies to give out. Bardem, who we saw screaming and crying, plays here in a low voice. Luengo, opposite, doesn’t give him an inch. Her way is to hold on. Not to cry when you wish she would break down. To leave the room, before retracing his steps to, cold turkey, reveal his truth. We loved the dry and angry Sorogoyen of the first thrillers. We discover him here at peace, but even more in control of his means.

By Rodrigo Sorogoyen. With Javier Bardem, Vicky Luengo, Marina Foïs… Duration: 2h15. Released May 16, 2026