There’s much anticipation, understandably so, for the forthcoming streaming sitcom A Man on the Inside, which will reunite star Ted Danson with The Good Place’s creator/showrunner Michael Schur. The San Francisco-set series features Danson as former engineering professor Charles Nieuwendyk—retired, widowed, rudderless—who responds to an unusual classified looking for 75+ men. The ad was posted by private investigator Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada), retained by a client with a mother in a nursing home…and who’s alarmed that family heirloom jewelry has disappeared from her room.
Charles’ mission (should he choose to accept it) is to take up residence in the facility, while covertly trying to gather evidence about who’s responsible for the theft. Beyond tripping over his own inexperience, the novice spy can’t help but get caught up in the toils of his new community, as portrayed by a great raft of veteran players including Sally Struthers, John Getz, Margaret Avery, Clyde Kusatsu, and Susan Ruttan.
The premise sounds engaging, and possibly, even a little familiar. If so, that’s because the show drew its inspiration from a heralded and very charming Chilean documentary called The Mole Agent (2020), which ultimately netted a Best Documentary Feature nomination at the 93rd Oscars.
The second lead, as it were, for director Maite Alberdi’s project was Romulo Aitken, a PI from the Santiago exurbs retained by a client who was certain that their mother was being subject to abuse at a local elder care home. After taking out an ad, and reviewing several applicants, Aitken settled on 83-year-old widowed grandfather Sergio Chamy. Tasked to leave his family for three months and move into the facility, Sergio was expected to surveil the premises and the client’s parent, and surreptitiously report back anything untoward.
(Beyond chronicling Sergio’s hiring and training, Alberdi’s crew got access to the elder care home under the pretext of making a documentary about senior living there. They claimed they wanted to focus on the perspective of a newly-arrived resident—who just so happened to be the “randomly” chosen Sergio.)
Early on in The Mole Agent, much of the humor comes from the set-in-his-ways Sergio trying to wrap his head around working with Romulo’s provided surveillance equipment and expected reporting methodology. As the film progresses, though, Sergio’s difficulties staying on mission stem more and more from his growing bonds with his new neighbors. Beyond the obvious pluses of being ambulatory and with it, Sergio proves personable, engaging, and caring, which made him catnip to the home’s largely female populace.
Moreover, dealing with them individually, he does what he can to help them deal with encroaching memory loss and loneliness. Ultimately, a sobered Sergio concludes that the only disservice being rendered to the client’s mother, or to anyone else in the building, is familial under-involvement.
Sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, very often poignant, The Mole Agent (available on DVD or Blu-ray) is a must see.