Spanish Movie

Spain 2009
produced by
Álvaro Augustín, Eneko Lizarraga (executive), Javier Méndez (executive), Francisco Sanchez Ortiz (executive), Javier Ugarte (executive) for Telecinco, Think Studio
directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera
starring Alexandra Jiménez, Carlos Areces, Silvia Abril, Laia Alda, Óscar Lara, Eduardo Gómez, Michelle Jenner, Joaquín Reyes, Juana Cordero, Teresa Lozano, Luis Zahera, Leticia Dolera, Clara Segura, Carmen Ruiz, David Fernández, Lorena Castell, Jordi Vilches, Fermi Fernández, Chema Segura, Julián López, Ernesto Sevilla, Raúl Cimas, Fernando Gil, Leslie Nielsen, Jaume Balagueró, Paco Plaza, Belén Rueda, Berto Romero, Andreo Buenafuente, Juan Antonio Bayona
written by Paco Cabezas, Eneko Lizarraga, music by Fernando Velázquez, special effects by Dharma Studio, Efe-X

review by
Mike Haberfelner

On her first day at the job as maid in Laura's (Silvia Abril) mansion, sexy Ramira (Alexandra Jiménez) accidently kills Laura's photosensitive son Simeon (Óscar Lara) by simply kicking him out into the sun. For a variety of understandable reasons though she hushes up the boy's death using a variety of tricks, and Laura is gullible enough to fall for them. Meanwhile, Laura's cousin Pedro (Carlos Areces), a painter who's paralyzed from his head down, falls in love with Ramira ...

Everything becomes a bit much for Ramira, so she wants out, but when she accidently kills her husband (Luis Zahera), she comes to the conclusion it's probably a good idea to hide out in Laura's mansion and even marry Pedro. Eventually, a strange being, probably a ghost, shows up to haunt the mansion, all the while trying to lead Laura to Simeon's corpse, which Ramira has hidden in the building, but Laura is much too preoccupied to understand what the ghost is trying to tell her for the longest time - until the ghost actually drags her to Simeon's corpse and reveals itself not to be Simeon's ghost at all but Laura's daughter Ofendia (Laia Alda).

A faun (Joaquín Reyes) has appeared to Pedro, telling him that the whole world is only a figment of Pedro's imagination, and the real Pedro has been cryogenically frozen and will wake up in the year 30-something as a perfectly healthy, non-paralyzed human being - but only if he commits suicide now. Pedro half-believes the faun, and since he has been suicidal for all his life, what's there to lose, right? But then again, he has fallen in love with Ramira and is not ready to give her up, even if that means to remain paralyzed for the rest of his life. Somehow though, he falls off a high rise building (his choice of swuicide) anyways, but figures if the whole world is a figment of his imagination, he should be able to control it - which includes shaking his paralysis and being able to fly. And it works, too, and in the end, he and Ramira are not only united as a loving (unparalyzed) couple, but he also manages to give life back to Simeon ... until of course Ramira accidently kills him again.

It must have been around the early 2000's that some air-headed Hollywood studio executive has decided that sticking the word movie to any film title makes a film, any film, a spoof. So nope, it's not the collection of bad yet topical fart jokes inside the film that makes it a spoof, it's the word movie. Why this pathetic concept was eventually picked up in Spain remains at anybody's guess, but in substance and humour, Spanish Movie remains true to its Hollywood-counterparts: It's a loud and vulgar collection of sight gags of the hit-or-miss (but mostly miss) variety, tied together by an unnecessarily weak plot, and the mere fact that Leslie Nielsen has a guest spot in the movie should give you an indication about the movie's subtlety.

That all said I might want to point out that at least stylistically, Spanish Movie seems to be more coherent than most Hollywood spoofs, the cast is better (and funnier) by far, and the humour at least tries to remain a level or two above fart jokes (but fails every now and again) - yet this all is not enough reason to watch (let alone like) this film, is it?

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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