Bunker review: Cruz and Bardem cannot rescue Florian Zeller’s thriller
Florian Zeller’s Bunker follows an architect whose decision to build a luxurious bunker for a technology billionaire alienates his wife, a book editor. Premiering at the Venice film festival, the film stars Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, but the review describes its treatment of alienation and inequality as shallow and its home-invasion suspense as unsatisfying.
Florian Zeller’s Bunker stars Javier Bardem as an architect who agrees to build a luxurious bunker for a tech billionaire. The decision alienates his wife, a book editor played by Penélope Cruz.
The film is Zeller’s first created directly for the screen rather than adapted from one of his stage originals. The review says it does not match the intimate, authentic passion of The Father (2021) or The Son (2022).
It also argues that the film’s themes of alienation and inequality are not developed, with the central relationship giving way to home-invasion suspense. The review describes the violent finale as glib, silly and unconvincing, and says an off-camera paramedic or doctor explains what happened in a brief sentence afterward.
THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND
What does the film leave unexplored about the relationship between the architect and his wife?
How does the billionaire’s role shape the story beyond commissioning the bunker?
What conditions would have made the film’s treatment of inequality more substantive?
Why does the suspense structure displace the marital relationship at the center of the premise?
What alternative ending could have made the final events more convincing?
YOUR QUESTION
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GLOBAL CURIOSITY MAP · AUGUST 2026