Horst_In_Translation Review of Vale

Vale (I) (2015)

Forgettable attempt at romance and comedy from a director who should know better

[4/10 · 6 October 2015]

This is a 10-minute (12 with credits) short film written and directed by Alejandro Amenábar. The Chilean-born filmmaker has worked on some of the most impactful Spanish-language film in the last 20 years and here, he comes up with a work that is even about the language to some extent. Dakota Johnson plays the female lead and she is still really famous because of "50 Shades of Grey". Male lead Quim Gutiérrez is probably only known to Spanish audiences. His character has an interest in Johnson's, but sadly she speaks no real Spanish and he speaks almost no English. Next we find out, how the male lead finds out all random facts about movies, music, theatre etc. before the two are united in the end. Not such a great film in my opinion. Not bad either and the music is nice sometimes, but as a whole it did not succeed for me as either a comedy or a romance movies. Of course, it would have helped if we hadn't seen Gutiérrez' character sleep around with other women before finally being united with his right one at the end. Certainly killed some of the romance. All in all, not recommended.