REVIEW: ‘I Don’t Expect Anyone To Believe Me’ Is An Awkward Mess

Juan Pablo (Dario Yazbek Bernal) was preparing to leave his home in Mexico to get his PhD in Barcelona with his girlfriend Valentina (Natalia Solián). But just as things look like they are unfolding perfectly for the aspiring academic, his cousin gets him pulled into a scheme involving a local drug cartel that is soon running his life under threat of death to his family and girlfriend. Now in Barcelona and struggling to maintain his mental health, Juan stumbles through his days with the sole goal of surviving his ordeal long enough to finish his novel and get his girlfriend out of harm’s way in the film I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me (No voy a pedirle a nadie que me crea).

From this film’s opening scene, which depicts several teenage boys viewing an old VHS porno film for no apparent reason, to its closing moments, there is an ongoing struggle to determine what is the point of I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me. So much is never known about what is happening; what little is revealed feels obtuse and meaningless. It is awkward, frequently uncomfortable, and does far too little with its nearly two-hour runtime to ever be entertaining.

While there are numerous low-key problems simmering under the surface of this story, one of the most notable hurdles is the omission of several key moments in the narrative that leave the viewer feeling disoriented and unsure of what is happening or even where it is happening. For example, shortly after getting roped into the cartel’s schemes, Juan goes on a horrible tirade towards Valentina, causing her to break up with him before they go to Barcelona, clearly to get her out of dodge of his newfound problems. However, this moment is not shown.

Rather, we learn about it through a phone call when the cartel boss Juan working for is chewing him out for driving her away. She is part of their plan, and he must reconcile with her. The next thing the viewer knows, they are living together again in Barcelona, though no suggestion that travel has occurred is given. They simply are somewhere else, and the viewer is left playing catch up. This larger sense of confusion is also seen in several smaller moments, where the camera cuts and angles make little sense, causing the viewer to be further pulled out of moments.

The middle stretch of I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me is further bogged down by painfully slow sequences of Juan laboring to accomplish vague objectives for his new masters. But without any context, the viewer is once again left in the dark about what it is he is doing. The tasks aren’t even interesting in and of themselves. There is never a feeling of mystery in the deeds being done. There is no causal link that leaves the viewer trying to put the pieces together. It’s just random stuff that presumably has meaning.

Again, the film slows down even further due to its spending time following Valentina as well as Juan. While the secondary protagonist engenders sympathy from the viewer, she is just trying to navigate living in a new city with a cold distant boyfriend and virtually no cash. Not the most eventful secondary plot for an already slow movie to follow.

The one area that the film doesn’t fail is in the acting. Bernal does a great job of presenting Juan’s crumbling mental health, leaning into both the verbal and mannerisms that reinforce how quickly his sanity is coming apart. His anguish over his treatment of Valentina keeps him feeling sympathetic, even as the viewer sees the repercussions of his actions play out on her.

I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me is a mess of a film that has little to say and feels unsure of how to even say it. It’s slow and disorienting, leaving the viewer with little to recommend of its story.

I Don’t Expect Anyone to Believe Me is streaming now on Netflix.