this film is a poor imitation of another Spanish film called "eres mi hero" and also can be similar to a popular TV-serial called "cuentame". a list of sentimentality, with the usual scheme of a dire intent for make emotion in the audience. is an eventual mode in the Spanish production this kind of filmmakers with poor results like this case. the ghost of the recent Spanish civil war is a bored McGuffey in this production like some others. is a film like other thousand films about a child who came to adult age and his vision of life. excepts an actor like Joan dalmau can shine in this film. the part especially i didn't buy was the moments ridiculous of sentimentality, that adds absolutely nothing to the plot and really takes the focus from more interesting subplots. i think that was a horrible maneuver of the studios to make the film interesting. that make no sense at all.
2 Reviews
The big book of Spanish film clichés
Zosete23 May 2008
An unexperienced director, Santiago Tabernero got himself a nice cast of Spanish actresses -the older ones, mainly- and ended up with a correctly directed movie that is absolutely dragged down by the very poor script.
The main sin of this movie is relying on every single cliché that burdens the last ten years of Spanish movies: 1. The main character is a kid in the trance of passing to adolescence. 2. It's located in the last years of the Spanish dictatorship. 3. There's the two granddads with the old feud from the civil war. 4. Ultradepressed family with tragic, extra-sordid subplot. 5. The "new attitudes" of interracial friendship and women rebellion against conventions.
These themselves aren't the ingredients for failure, but it's the absolutely flat and one-sided treatment that blows it. All characters are unidimensional and predictable, with a total lack of drama. They never question their choices. Even the main role progresses from loser to "not a misfit" without much stress. One of the best actresses, Carmen Machi, has got the chance to deepen into the contradictions of her character and the remorse from her bad deeds, but the plot immediately drives her character into the rails, forgets about it and gets back to the more obvious outcomes. Add to it the bad metaphors (the scary tunnel the guy has to cross to getting to school, the unfinished building stopped in the post-war era, the black dead tree...), the excess of bad timed heartwarming and average bad acting and you got it made for one of the best examples of the dreads that ballast Spanish cinema.
The main sin of this movie is relying on every single cliché that burdens the last ten years of Spanish movies: 1. The main character is a kid in the trance of passing to adolescence. 2. It's located in the last years of the Spanish dictatorship. 3. There's the two granddads with the old feud from the civil war. 4. Ultradepressed family with tragic, extra-sordid subplot. 5. The "new attitudes" of interracial friendship and women rebellion against conventions.
These themselves aren't the ingredients for failure, but it's the absolutely flat and one-sided treatment that blows it. All characters are unidimensional and predictable, with a total lack of drama. They never question their choices. Even the main role progresses from loser to "not a misfit" without much stress. One of the best actresses, Carmen Machi, has got the chance to deepen into the contradictions of her character and the remorse from her bad deeds, but the plot immediately drives her character into the rails, forgets about it and gets back to the more obvious outcomes. Add to it the bad metaphors (the scary tunnel the guy has to cross to getting to school, the unfinished building stopped in the post-war era, the black dead tree...), the excess of bad timed heartwarming and average bad acting and you got it made for one of the best examples of the dreads that ballast Spanish cinema.
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