'Goyo': Netflix's Second Try at Argentine Romcom

The 2024 rom-com scene seems to be all about older women falling in love with younger men.

First, there was "May December" (which I personally consider a romance movie), then "The Idea of You," and later "A Family Affair." Now, we have "Goyo", an Argentine rom-com produced by Netflix that tells the story of a young man with Asperger's syndrome who falls for a 50-year-old woman.

As Netflix's second Argentine rom-com, "Goyo" got the attention it was looking for after its release and became the top movie on the streaming platform in the country. Compared to its predecessor in 2022, "The Marriage App", "Goyo" clearly shows Netflix's improvement—it has more delicate cinematography, better visual effects, and stronger acting performances.

Unlike "The Marriage App", which created a new concept of the protagonists playing love games, "Goyo" dives into more everyday matters. The male lead with Asperger's syndrome leads a monotonous and lonely life because he struggles to communicate with others. His condition might be unique, but his situation is relatable. Everyone feels out of place in the world at times. Loneliness is a universal emotion and finding it hard to connect with others is a common modern problem. We might be more socially adept than the titular leading man, Goyo, but we all face similar struggles and isolation. Eva, his female counterpart, is a middle-aged woman working as a security guard at a museum. She's separated from her abusive husband and raises her son alone. Financially, she's not well-off and seems ordinary. Almost every woman who has suffered in her marriage can probably relate to Eva.

The characters in the film are designed to be relatable, but in some ways, they start to lose realism. One of the main contributing factors is their motivation for entering a romantic relationship. Like other rom-coms featuring older women and younger men, there aren't any compelling reasons for Goyo to fall in love with Eva. In other movies, the female lead is often a beautiful and successful single woman. But in "Goyo", Eva is nothing less than nondescript. The audience knows that Nancy Dupláa is a big star, but in the world of "Goyo", she's just a typical single mom. Goyo's love for her is explained as a chance event—he sees her holding an umbrella on a rainy day and falls head over heels with her.

Of course, love entails the element of chance. But in reality, such a coincidence isn't satisfactorily convincing for adult audiences. So, the screenwriter adds another irrefutable reason for Goyo's sudden attraction towards Eva. He isn't understood by others due to his medical condition, and Eva happens to be the only one who can communicate with him. But this is barely acceptable. It feels like a potential oversight by the screenwriter. Goyo is so young, handsome, smart, and wealthy. Had it not been for his condition and eccentric personality, he wouldn't have been still single and even laid his eyes on someone as plain as Eva.

One of the goals of a rom-com is to let ordinary audiences experience an extraordinary dream. Goyo falling in love with Eva marks the start of the dream. But then there's another unrealistic aspect of this movie—the environment the characters are in. It's clear that Netflix is trying to make their Argentine movies more localized. Things evocative of Argentina are heavily featured in the scenes, such as Museo Nacional De Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts), soccer fields with Argentine jerseys, helado (Argentine ice cream), and mate tea. But these elements don't tie into the plot; this story could be set anywhere and might even fit better elsewhere, especially considering Argentina's situation in 2024.

If you've visited the National Museum of Fine Arts this year, you'd know what I mean. In the movie, this museum is shown as elegant, artistic, and orderly. But when I visited last month, it was very crowded. The staff kept reminding me to carry my bag on my front to prevent pickpocketing. I'm not saying the movie should fully capture this tense atmosphere, but it does romanticize and beautify the current situation in Argentina.

In the past few years, the country's economy hasn't been great. A poor economic environment leads to higher theft and robbery rates, and people's lives will always be filled with unease. But the screenwriter makes Goyo a descendant of a wealthy family. His sister is a pianist, and his brother is a successful chef. The three siblings live in a luxurious house and lead worry-free lives as they don't have to be troubled over their finances. Goyo works as a museum guide to integrate into society and as a personal hobby, rather than to make a living. He loves painting but hasn't picked up a brush in four and a half years. The movie suggests that he lost his creative desire since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of COVID-19 on ordinary people's lives is huge. Many have lost their jobs and loved ones, gone bankrupt, suffered from severe chronic illnesses, or struggled with despair and loneliness. But the upper-class families? They can't paint, period. This disparity was a bit disappointing.

This problem isn't just unique to "Goyo". The rom-com genre often undermines the harshness of reality and evades topics including economic pressures and grim social problems. The female leads in rom-coms may be poor, but the male leads are often wealthy. By getting into a relationship with these men, their charm and wealth help free the female protagonists from distress. This roughly sums up all Cinderella-like plots and they haven't really changed. Netflix has adapted an overused story to Argentina and incorporated the latest trend of older woman-younger man relationships/couples with huge age gaps.

But hey, the acting is great; the cinematography is elegant; and the movie isn't too long. It isn't a bad choice to support Netflix's Argentine movies and watch "Goyo" casually in the evening.