Fantastic Fest 2023 – The Coffee Table is one of those films that manages to balance dark comedy with Hitchcock-like suspense. There is an actual coffee table, which features prominently during the runtime, but it’s a trigger for startling events that unfold as early as the film’s first act.

Directed by Caye Casas, who co-wrote the script with Cristina Borobia, the narrative centers around a middle-aged couple, Jesus (David Pareja) and Maria (Estefanía de los Santos). Their relationship has reached a rocky point. To give it some purpose and to focus on a single task, they eventually buy a coffee table, after arguing about it first. Sometimes, these small domestic acts can provide balance to a relationship, or so the couple hopes, especially Jesus.

The first 20 minutes are straight-up comedy, and here, the dynamic between Pareja and de los Santos is hilarious. Their banter and constant bickering are funny, but it also underscores that their characters’ relationship has deteriorated to the point that buying a coffee table becomes a Herculean feat. The first act is peppered with other absurdities, too, including an over-the-top salesman at the store and a little girl who believes she’s going to marry Jesus one day. She’s also his neighbor.

While a majority of the film maintains some of the preposterousness, it takes a much more serious tone after a horrific accident occurs when Maria leaves Jesus home alone with their newborn. Without giving anything away, let’s just say it does involve the coffee table. Meanwhile, Jesus spends the rest of the movie trying to hide what actually occurred. At times, this is silly, especially when he talks to neighbors with blood splattered all over his face and clothes, or when he tries to hide the truth from his wife as she prattles on about her day and the various other issues she has with her husband.

In some ways, this feature reminded me of Hitchcock’s Rope, especially because of its nail-biting thrills. The concept is somewhat similar. Instead of a dinner party and antique wooden chest hiding a body that two men killed, you have the coffee table, ever-present in most scenes. You also have a secret that’s fairly out in the open and other characters totally oblivious of the fact or ignoring it, at least until the conclusion.

Overall, The Coffee Table is riotous, strange, and definitely disturbing. There are at least two scenes in this, one early and one much later, that will no doubt shock. I’m still getting over one of them. While the resolution doesn’t quite work and leans into some pretty surreal territory, there’s more here that’s memorable than not. This is a snapshot of a relationship gone horribly, horribly wrong.

7.5 Out of 10