Prince (2026)
There is a wickedly good premise at the heart of Federico Borgia's Prince, and a pedigree cast to carry it, but this Uruguayan dark comedy never quite sinks its teeth in. It is a perfectly pleasant watch, handsomely made and nicely performed, yet for a film built on such a deliciously nasty idea it ends up oddly toothless, neither as funny nor as gripping as that setup promises. A solid, likeable three stars.
The hook is a beauty. When the wealthy, elegant Isabel dies suddenly, her will reveals an extraordinary condition: she has left her entire luxury estate not to her family but to Prince, her cherished best-in-show Afghan Hound. Jaime, her devoted companion and the dog's carer, is charged with protecting the animal and the house, which Isabel's human heirs can only claim once Prince is dead. It is a setup ripe for black farce, and when Isabel's estranged son and his daughter sweep in and begin quietly plotting the dog's demise so the place can be sold and the money split, you can feel the deliciously grim comedy the film is reaching for.
The early stretch takes its time setting the scene, Isabel and Jaime's comfortable, faintly absurd retirement of dog shows, drinks and quiet routines, before the death tips everything into motion. Around the central scheme, Borgia threads in a tangle of subplots: Jaime's affair, his fractured relationship with his own estranged son, and a budding connection between that son and Isabel's granddaughter that pulls the family knot a little tighter. It is all perfectly watchable, and the performances are the film's strongest suit, Roberto Suárez, Esteban Bigliardi and Maitina De Marco playing it straight and grounded in a way that keeps the silliness from floating off.
The trouble is that it is all a bit muted. A film about relatives scheming to bump off an inheritance-hogging show dog ought to be either very funny or genuinely tense, and Prince is never quite either. The humour is gentle where it could be savage, the menace mild where it could bite, and the whole thing drifts along pleasantly without ever building the momentum its premise is crying out for. It ends, too, rather abruptly, in a way that left me feeling the film had stopped rather than arrived anywhere.
Three stars. Prince is a well-acted, good-looking and amiable dark comedy with a premise far sharper than the film around it, and there is genuine pleasure in watching a cast this good play it dead straight. I just wish it had the nerve to be as cruel, or as hilarious, as its own idea deserves. Worth a look, especially if the thought of a Uruguayan farce about a dog that owns a mansion tickles you, but not a film I can push much past good.
Prince had its world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival.
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