YO (Me) Review

Yo is the story of Hans, a migrant German worker brought to a small town on the Spanish island of Majorca to work as a handyman on the estate of Tanca, a moody and temperamental man who likes to bring in workers from his homeland because, as he puts it, should they do anything wrong there are always eight million more unemployed Germans waiting in line to do things right.  Hans is an awkward man, tentative and uncertain, wanting to be liked but uncertain how to go about actually getting to know anybody, a situation helped not one bit by the temperament of his employer, the indifference of the locals, and the confusion caused by the fact that his predecessor was also named Hans.

This prior Hans, our new Hans learns, was not a popular man. Prone to drinking and fits of violence he had only two friends in the town – an elderly man slowly fading into senility and the woman who runs the town bar – and he simply disappeared one day, leaving his belongings behind in the rented house new Hans now occupies.  Some speculate that old Hans is still lurking about somewhere and will return at some point, some think he is gone for good, but nobody seems certain either way.

And once these basic facts are established … well … nothing much happens.  Hans – the new one – watches men in the bar play cards.  He strikes up a relationship with the crippled girl who works in the bar.  He catches the misplaced wrath of his employer when a bottle of whiskey is missing from his regular order from the bar.  And, slowly, he uncovers bits and pieces about his predecessor.

Well shot and well performed, Yo suffers from a general lack of focus and narrative drive.  Ultimately a film about what a man will do to earn the acceptance of those around him it is not nearly thrilling enough to be a compelling thriller, its lead character far too bland for it to be effective as a character piece.  Motivations are never clear, the overall point of the film even less so.  It just sort of happens and then it’s done.  The core material could be the basis for a solid noir, a mystery, or a dark thriller but the film chooses none of these options – a non-choice that can leave the audience every bit as baffled as Hans himself is through most of the running time.