Netflix’s One Small Problem Review: Months-Long Lies

One Small Problem or Sin Hijos is a romantic comedy movie directed by Roberto Fiesco and stars Alfonso Dosal, Regina Blandón, Francesca Mercadante and Jorge Muniz, alongside other cast members.

At some point in One Small Problem or Sin Hijos, Fidel, our male lead, asks the female lead Marina as to why she fell in love with him – was it because he was childless? Because apart from that, he’s still the same person. What Fidel forgot was that he lied to the girl for months about not having children, although that was the first thing Marina asked him, not once but multiple times, and yet the guy chose to lie to her. Should this be considered catfishing? In my book, definitely. However, do things work out tremendously well for this lying ass? Yes, it does.

Fidel falls in love with Marina when she walks into his store. Although everything about that is great, Marina is staunchly childfree while Fidel already has a 9-year-old daughter, Ari. What would mature adults do when this happens? Talk about it and either come to a compromise or break up. But Fidel decides to lie about his daughter and that obviously spells doom for their relationship.

Listen, I understand love and all that, but you simply cannot lie to a person and then ask your child to lie for you because you cannot put on your big boy pants and face the truth of the circumstances around you. Fidel is the worst kind of man to date. Not only does he lie about having a child, but he also tries to mansplain to Marina as to why she should like kids and goes as far as to take her to a park and interact with children. Why should Marina have to do this? She was pretty upfront about what her life choices are, why does she deserve to go through this crap?

Because sexism, which Marina points out. It is expected of women to like and have kids and when they don’t, they are made out to be some kind of monsters. However, the same expectations are not there for men. The differential treatment of the sexes is nauseating to witness, especially in 2021, and does not make for a good romance. I wouldn’t want my boyfriend to lie to me about his child and then try to brainwash me into liking kids so that life is easier for him.

Additionally, Fidel just drops Ari the moment things start to get heated for him. I mean, of course, he has a life and should definitely try to live it to the fullest. But you don’t just abandon your daughter and then let her call herself your sister to save the relationship based on lies. That’s not okay. Surprisingly, young Ari shows more maturity than his adult father, which seems to be a trope of movies like these. The adults, somehow, have no idea how to maturely handle difficult situations and it is up to the kids to do that. It’s not only unfair but is also a horrible thing to put children through. Please stop showing this in movies.

As if the barrage of shit doesn’t end, One Small Problem features this scene towards the end of the movie where poor Ari pleads with Marina that she won’t live with her father for too long and will leave when she’s older. It’s a heartbreaking scene and made me furious for the adults in the situation who do nothing to prevent this. Infuriatingly still, Ari’s grandfather is right there and sees no problem in this exchange. Why are we using a child to fuel her father’s romantic relationship, you ask? I don’t know.

Alfonso Dosal and Regina Blandón are great in their roles in One Small Problem though. They’re easy to watch and look great together. But the real star of this show is Francesca Mercadante who is perfect as Ari and is absolutely adorable and mature for her age.

Summing up: One Small Problem

If you couldn’t figure it out from the previous paragraphs, I hate movies where one person has to lie to the other to get their way and things still work out in their favour. There are no real consequences to their actions and everything is wrapped up all too easily. One Small Problem is just that – it’s too easy and feels like a universe where you can just lie to someone about something so big and just easily get away with it. However, the movie is light on the head, everything looks pretty and the leads do a good job with their roles. If you don’t go too deep into it, then this will probably be a good one-time watch.

One Small Problem or Sin Hijos is streaming on Netflix.

Liked the One Small Problem review? Read our other reviews here.