egue1968

It kept me on the edge of my seat. True, the story has a few plot holes, but the sheer tension of it, the way the director just keeps challenging the premise is simply fascinating.

José Coronado and Adriana Ozores are two of Spain's best actors (see La vida mancha and Héctor) and here they appear as a happy upper-middle class couple. Beneath it all, the truth is that all of Coronado's life is a lie. He's not an economist, never went to college or does not work in Spain's Central Bank Reserve, as everybody else believes. We get a few insights as to how he kept up appearances or manage to do it, and while not very plausible it is still somehow believable.

The inner-workings of the scam are shown intermittently, but it is credible because Coronado is a source of self-assurance and assertiveness. He not only believes in the scam, he also believes in the film premise, and therefore he carries it.

Sure, it tests belief that a wife would not know the inner workings of a marriage's finances for almost 10 years, but again, since he's supposedly a brilliant economist.

It has been said, in a nationalistic tone, that the movie is not "distinctively Spanish", as if that were a litmus test for good film. True, no castanets or odd cabbies in this one, just a taut thriller. You'll want to know how this story ends once you start watching.

This is Luis García Berlanga's second take on the Leguineches, a down and out aristocratic family who settle in their palatial home in the middle of Madrid and try to feign relevance. As the leit-motiv in most of Berlanga's films (people pretending to be something they're not), it marginally works. No matter how indebted the Count of Leguineche is, he nonetheless goes on to use his connections to get loans and re-establish himself in newly-democratic Spain.

Sure, the gags are all about how they simply ignore reality (and covet royalty's attention).

A first-rate cast saves the film from absolute tedium, that including the marvelous Mary Santpere and Luis Escobar as the unflappable marquises, and José Luis López Vázquez. Luis Ciges as the ever-loyal servant and Agustín González as the venal family priest provide a comfortable yet predictable performance.

The story in itself is spiral-like and, like the Leguineches, really looks good but goes nowhere.

If you like character-driven cinema soft on plot and big on redundant gags that lampoon aristocracy, this one is for you.

This contains a spoiler.

Although the movie was very honest and earnest, I disliked it for several reasons. Perhaps the worst sin is its stereotypes, not only of gay people but of the 70s, and of Mexico and Mexicans . The "impossible love-coming out story-AIDS horror story twinged with Thelma and Louise" bit has been done before, and much better.

And the ending seems like a caricature of AIDS patients everywhere, and of the characters themselves. The eleventh-hour refound love theme is a little bit too much.

It's unfortunate that the movie didn't do it for me, since it is so full of good intentions. But it's just one of those cases when the writer/director has too much on his hands, and overextends a limited film and budget.

And you get the idea that you're watching an alternate/younger version of Brad Pitt and Alan Rickman. In this universe, Pitt's clone is better.

What starts out as a sumptuous setting, with intricate period pieces and soft light cinematography, is quickly tainted by a very poor script. True, Pilar López de Ayala does give an envigorating rendering of this misfortunate queen, but after the first scene, it's all the same shrillness, over and over again. Even though the movie takes place over 10 years, the roles don't mature, either outwardly or inwardly, and the result are wooden characterizations that don't give any depth (or generate interest, for that matter) to the roles. The result is an inane, one-dimensional film that could have easily resembled similar period pieces such as La reine Margot or Elizabeth. Instead, it wallows in its own misery.