Constantly brewing family tensions take the forefront in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved” (“El Ser Querido”), successfully translating the strained central relationships to the audience, but failing to connect in other ways.

“The Beloved” follows a highly acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez (Javier Bardem) as he reunites with his estranged daughter, Emilia (Victoria Luengo), after she is cast in his next film. Their collaboration fuels the strain in their relationship as Esteban’s aggressive directing style and new family create feelings of resentment within Emilia, both for herself and on behalf of her mother, a former actress. “The Beloved” aims to communicate through the unsaid; the pair never address their conflict head-on, but engage in manipulative and toxic expressions of their inner feelings.

“The Beloved” is anchored by Bardem and Luengo’s incredible performances. Bardem’s Martínez is simultaneously charismatic and frightening as he switches between a father hoping to repair his relationship with his daughter to a tyrannical director, violently pushing everyone to their limits. His volatility in the role serves to raise the stakes of the film, though at times the characterization falls flat.

Luengo masterfully delivers Emilia’s emotional vulnerability and nervousness through subtle expression and moving monologues throughout the film. Even in moments when Emilia is more comfortable, Luengo manages to keep a guard around the character at all times, creating the constant distrust and disdain that underlies the pair’s relationship. Supporting characters like Raúl (Raúl Prieto) and César (Raúl Arévalo) also help lift the film, adding humor to particularly intense scenes without feeling like comic relief.

In “The Beloved,” the troubled father-daughter relationship seeps into the success of the film shoot, motivating tantrums that disrupt the rest of the cast and crew. In on-set scenes, the film brings audiences into the real-life filming process. Sorogoyen includes the perspectives of the whole crew, from makeup and hair assistants to the director of photography. As an interesting detail, many of the crew members featured in the film, like camera operator Pablo (Pablo Gómez-Pando), have the same name as their actors. As Esteban hurls insults at the crew, the diminished degree of separation between character and actor enhances the raw reactions of fear and discomfort.

Throughout the film, Esteban and Emilia encounter many points of conflict: Esteban, a recovering alcoholic, disapproves of Emilia’s drinking habits and is dissatisfied with her lack of authenticity when performing. The two go back and forth, sometimes allowing each other in, and at other times pushing each other away.

Though their dynamic should be compelling enough to carry the 135-minute film, “The Beloved” struggles to raise the stakes. Even the introduction of Esteban’s new wife Alice (Laura Birn) and their young kids — which feels like nothing more than a plot point to increase tensions — doesn’t get the payoff it deserves. While Sorogoyen attempts subtlety, his direction toes the line between muted emotion and simply having nothing to say.

Visually, “The Beloved” is striking and ever-changing. The film occasionally switches from color to black-and-white for a few seconds, often in scenes from Emilia’s perspective. While the effect is visually interesting, it isn’t artistically impactful enough to justify its vague significance. Other techniques used by cinematographer Alejandro de Pablo — like the use of grainy footage to capture the film crew’s reactions to Esteban’s rampages — visually ignited the film with clearer purpose.

Also triumphant is the sound design by Aitor Berenguer and Fabiola Ordoyo. The pair uses sound as the film’s primary driver, leading scene transitions in an effective, truly creative way. Using silence to subvert expectations, the film’s sound design helps keep it exciting. However, the most brilliant element of “The Beloved” is Olivier Arson’s score. With a mesmerizing orchestral sound, the score is not just sonically beautiful, but carries the emotion of the film, expressing through music what the characters fail to communicate through words.

With strong acting performances, experimental visuals, and innovative sound, “The Beloved” excels in its creativity as an auteur film. Unfortunately, despite its compelling father-daughter relationship, the film is unable to find the right balance of subtlety, becoming distracted with too many inexplicable stylistic choices. In this, “The Beloved” ultimately fails to be as moving as it clearly wants to be.

—Staff writer Dzifa A. Ackuayi can be reached at [email protected].