The Mole Agent

Name: The Mole Agent
Genre: Documentary
Released: September 1, 2020
Duration: 84 min
Rating: 69

2020

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

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7.3

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7.3	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Ratings

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The Mole Agent (US Trailer 1)

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Movie Details & Credits

Gravitas Ventures | Release Date (Streaming): September 1, 2020 | Not Rated

Summary: When a family grows concerned for their mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires 83-year-old Sergio to pose as a new resident and undercover spy inside the facility. The Mole Agent follows Sergio as he struggles to balance his assignment with his increasing involvement in the lives of the many residents heWhen a family grows concerned for their mother’s well-being in a retirement home, private investigator Romulo hires 83-year-old Sergio to pose as a new resident and undercover spy inside the facility. The Mole Agent follows Sergio as he struggles to balance his assignment with his increasing involvement in the lives of the many residents he meets. … Expand

Director: Maite Alberdi

Genre(s): Documentary

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 84 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

IndieWire Eric Kohn

Sep 2, 2020

The Mole Agent may not look like a documentary, but it builds to a poetic finale enmeshed in emotional authenticity. Read full review

100

The Playlist Jonathan Christian

Sep 2, 2020

The Mole Agent is a perfect film. From a technical and emotional viewpoint equally, The Mole Agent possesses no flaws. Yes, as with every documentary, manipulation is openly displayed and validity can always be questioned, but The Mole Agent dissuades any inkling of pessimism or negativity through its unabashed sincerity. Read full review

Pat Brown

Aug 31, 2020

That Maite Alberdi’s camera itself is present in The Mole Agent as a quasi-ethical concern suits the way Sergio, as he shuffles through the home’s hallways, gradually comes to be uncomfortable with his own surveillance. Read full review

Glenn Kenny

Sep 2, 2020

The movie’s straddling of the dramatic and the documentary forms is unsettling. Unless you unquestioningly accept its method, this chronicle can look like a glaring invasion of privacy. But the film’s people are moving, and the payoff is compassionate, humane and worth heeding. Read full review

The Film Stage Matt Cipolla

Sep 2, 2020

The Mole Agent may stumble through some of its choices at first, but it sticks the landing by finding a cogitative dissonance and refusing to solve it. Read full review

Empire Nikki Baughan

Dec 17, 2020

A moving exploration of the realities of growing old, Maite Alberdi’s documentary effectively blends documentary with dramatic elements to charming, if not always transparent, effect. Read full review

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

Dec 10, 2020

Sergio himself has real gentleness and is a lovely character, and there is some amiable comedy about how he is starting to enjoy himself in the home. But he is marooned in a tricksy, gimmicky film. Read full review

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User Reviews

Panchogul

Mar 3, 2021

Muy buena, tierna, entretenida y conmovedora, merece todo el reconocimiento que tuvo Una Mujer Fantástica.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Gildardomd

Feb 22, 2021

What begins as a fun light hearted situation subtly shows the complexity of growing old in a nursing home for the elderly

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

alejandro970

Mar 4, 2021

Uno de los mejores ejemplos del reciente cine latinoamericano. Con un lenguaje sencillo y emotivo nos pone a reflexionar sobre los sentimientos y las condiciones en las que viven los adultos mayores. Sin falta.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DawdlingPoet

Nov 24, 2021

I liked the plot of this documentary film but at the end, I wasn't quite sure what conclusions had been reached. I thought it was nice to see how the titular mole had managed to befriend different people in the home, seeing how he got on with others and sometimes how staff behaved. It's anI liked the plot of this documentary film but at the end, I wasn't quite sure what conclusions had been reached. I thought it was nice to see how the titular mole had managed to befriend different people in the home, seeing how he got on with others and sometimes how staff behaved. It's an interesting idea and it made me think of Richard Osman's debut novel 'The Thursday Murder Club', which is about a group of care home residents that investigate crimes (this documentary doesn't focus on a murder though, it must be said). I suppose its true that society maybe hasn't made many films, or otherwise concentrated on, care home residents - what they experience and so on, in the past. Certainly not as much as the lives of younger people and so its nice to see something a bit different, I guess. I enjoyed watching this, I just wish that I felt it was more clear what had happened at the end (unless I just wasn't paying enough attention?). I would recommend this to others, yes.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Brent_Marchant

Apr 12, 2021

When the daughter of a nursing home patient suspects that her mother is being subjected to elder abuse and theft of her possessions, she hires an investigator to verify the claims through surveillance conducted by an elderly "spy" he recruits to check in as a temporary resident. What theWhen the daughter of a nursing home patient suspects that her mother is being subjected to elder abuse and theft of her possessions, she hires an investigator to verify the claims through surveillance conducted by an elderly "spy" he recruits to check in as a temporary resident. What the mole finds, however, doesn't exactly jibe with the accusations but, instead, reveals a very different truth about what it's like to be a resident of one of these facilities. Despite this, though, director Maite Alberdi's latest documentary offering struggles with telling its story, leading viewers to believe it's headed in one direction while actually moving in another less-than-apparent manner, one that's not well delineated until the film's closing moments. What's more, it's not always clear just how much of a "documentary" this release really is, given a premise that seems to be more than a little "planned" in nature. Also, its attempts at humor, though cute at first, fade as the picture progresses and reveals a more substantive, serious narrative, one that makes its comedic material look cheeky as a consequence. There indeed is an important message here, but its presentation deserved better treatment in the finished product.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

DogeGamer2015

Mar 7, 2021

El reparto es bueno y la cinematografía es llamativa; sin embargo, la trama es algo aburrida.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Dan_B

Mar 6, 2021

(espaañol / English)

Extracto El agente topo (por Netflix) Este documental le sigue los pasos a Sergio, uno señor de ochenta y pico contratado por una agencia de detectives para infiltrarse en un geriátrico como residente e investigar cómo tratan a la madre de una clienta de la agencia(espaañol / English)

Extracto
El agente topo (por Netflix)

Este documental le sigue los pasos a Sergio, uno señor de ochenta y pico contratado por una agencia de detectives para infiltrarse en un geriátrico como residente e investigar cómo tratan a la madre de una clienta de la agencia internada allí.

¿Qué es real, ficcional o metaficcional en este documental? ¿Hasta dónde están dispuestos a llegar los documentalistas para filmar aquello y a aquéllos que investigan? ¿Cuáles son los límites éticos?

Lamentablemente todo El agente topo está montado sobe un engaño. Más que un infiltrado de una agencia de detectives, el “agente” Sergio es un infiltrado de la directora, que cambia el foco y comienza a interesarse por los diálogos y testimonios de las engañadas ancianas del geriátrico. Terminé de ver este documental con una sensación de incomodidad cercana a la indignación: la de haber presenciado una desleal invasión a la privacidad de un grupo de ancianas para exhibir su dolor y servir como instrumentos de la directora y su dispositivo cinematográfico, de un experimento. Y con la perplejidad de que casi nadie se haya planteado estas cuestiones éticas o las minimizaran, sobre todo los críticos y los jurados de los festivales.
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Abstract

The Mole Agent (by Netflix)

This documentary follows in the footsteps of Sergio, an eighty-something man hired by a detective agency to infiltrate a nursing home as a resident and investigate how the mother of an agency client hospitalized there is treated.

What is real, fictional or metafictional in this documentary? How far are documentary makers willing to go to film that and those they investigate? What are the ethical limits?

Unfortunately, the entire agent mole is mounted on a hoax. More than an infiltrator from a detective agency, the "agent" Sergio is an infiltrator of the director, who changes the focus and begins to be interested in the dialogues and testimonies of the deceived elderly women of the nursing home. I finished watching this documentary with a feeling of discomfort close to indignation: that of having witnessed a disloyal invasion of the privacy of a group of elderly women to display their pain and serve as instruments of the director and her cinematographic device, of an experiment. And with the perplexity that hardly anyone has raised these ethical questions or downplayed them, especially the critics and festival juries.

Review

A lady (who does not appear on camera) hires the services of a detective agency to find out how they treat her mother, admitted to a nursing home. This documentary follows in the footsteps of Sergio, an eighty-something man hired by the agency to infiltrate the nursing home as a resident and carry out the investigation.

This documentary by the Chilean Maite Alberdi raises numerous elements for analysis and debate, some frankly uncomfortable.

I have read notes about how this documentary was filmed and a report to its director that were far from reassuring me.

The detective agency and its director are real, as well as the casting they carry out to choose Sergio as a mole. The "mission" entrusted to him is also real. The nursing home had previously accepted the presence of cameras for the filming of a documentary.

But unfortunately the entire Mole Agent is mounted on a hoax. More than an infiltrator of the detective agency, Sergio is an infiltrator of the director, who changes the focus and begins to be interested in the dialogues and testimonies that he generates with the elderly women in the nursing home. And like any mole, he deceives about his identity and his goals to all the companions who begin to bond with him, who by the way is a charming person.

To what extent do these women know that what they express (and to an impostor) is being filmed? Frail people, some of them already with signs of cognitive decline.

The detective moments are hilarious and the dialogues with the old ladies range from the picturesque to the moving.
But the purpose of this whole montage is not clear to me:
1) Reflect the daily life of a nursing home?
2) Give a voice to people who generally don't have it?
3) A testimony to sensitize the audience about how the elderly in general suffer in these institutions of loneliness, depression and abandonment by their families? Is this really a novelty? I finished watching this documentary with a feeling of discomfort close to indignation: that of having witnessed a disloyal invasion of the privacy of a group of elderly women to display their pain and serve, in short, as instruments for showing off the director and his cinematic device, from an experiment. And with the perplexity that almost no one has raised these ethical questions or minimizes them, starting with the critics and the festival juries.… Expand

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