A Couple Dances with Death in Spry Musical

Carlos Marqués-Marcet brings life to a grave situation in “They Will Be Dust,” realizing that when so many tiptoe around the subject of death, it might not be such a stretch to put an elderly couple in ballet shoes if they’re thinking it’s time to choose for themselves to shuffle off their mortal coil. The unconventional drama proves moving in more ways than one when following the septuagenarian pair that has booked a one-way trip to Switzerland, achieving a level of intimacy unusual even for its reliably sensitive director when music and dance can crack open what mere dialogue cannot.

Marqués-Marcet’s approach to his fourth feature may be unexpected, but the subject seems inevitable when the director has spent his previous three films considering different stages of life. After his impressive debut “10,000KM” involved a couple too young to see the issues that a long-distance relationship might pose, it becomes poignant to watch Marqués-Marcet observe another kind of distance here. Claudia (Ángela Molina) suffers from a degenerative condition that has placed her at a remove from her husband Flavio (Alfredo Castro) even when they share the same bed, no longer on the same wavelength as they were in the preceding decades.

Co-written with longtime collaborator Clara Roquet and Coral Cruz, “They Will Be Dust” opens with a bravura single take in which a call to the paramedics to treat a manic episode at Claudia and Flavio’s home becomes a tango between the woman and the paramedics. As breathtaking as the camerawork and choreography of this scene is, what catches the eye may be that Flavio — as well as their live-in daughter Violeta (Monica Amirall) — is unable to match their footwork. That disconnect sets up not only the more fantastical elements that occasionally intrude into the drama, but also the notion that partners are often out of step with their loved ones when the choice to die with dignity can be honored without being entirely accepted.

Naturally, reactions range across the family, who can’t be happy to learn of Claudia and Flavio’s plans when they were under the impression they’d been brought together to witness the couple renewing their vows. Meanwhile, Violeta can be mildly resentful of her siblings Manuel (Alvan Prado) and Lea (Patricia Bargello), who have had the time to start their lives while she’s devoted all hers to caring for Claudia. They can all be angry at Flavio, who is in better health than his wife, but nonetheless decides he can’t carry on without her, a sign of devotion that not even Claudia can appreciate. It’s a compassionate gesture that, when the characters feel like they can’t confide in one another, the filmmakers allow them to belt out their feelings and dance, knowing at least one captive audience will hear them.

To really make it sing, the film could stand to have a couple more musical numbers when Marqués-Marcet’s judicious deployment sets up expectations of a certain rhythm the film never fully settles into. Yet the musical breaks have a depth of feeling that’s uncommon on screen, with marvelous modern choreography from Marcos Morau and Le Veonal which thrusts Claudia in the throes of death when surrounded by dancers whose unnatural movements she eases into mimicking.

Composer Maria Arnal also rises to the occasion with a score that will blend the earthly and the ethereal, supplying a scene set in a garden with an orchestra comprised partially of leaf blowers and pruning shears. It’s one unorthodox way of many that “They Will Be Dust” finds to access emotion, but the emotions elicited can be surprising on their own when the film has such a refreshing attitude about passing on: ambivalent about the afterlife, but certainly not fearful of it. The only sadness that comes from “The End” here is that the film itself has concluded.