July 21, 2013

MOVIES: I'm So Excited (Pedro Almodovar, 2013)

An attempt at broad farce that has a few good moments, but never quite finds a consistent tone.

We're on a Peninsula Air flight to Mexico, but there's a problem in the landing gear, and the plane is stuck circling Toledo (Spain, not Ohio) waiting for a runway to be cleared. The passengers in economy are all asleep (having been drugged by the flight crew, who don't want to deal with them), and the first class stewards are trying to maintain calm among their half-dozen passengers. But since they're a group of ditzy, emotional queens, calm doesn't come naturally to them. (The gay stereotyping in this movie is unusually cheap and insulting for Almodovar.)

There are moments when the dialogue snaps with the energy of the best screwball comedies, but too often, mostly when we're spending time on the passengers' backstories, things slow way down and get far too draggy. And the tone of light fun is completely destroyed with a scene in which one of those drugged passengers in coach is raped while passed out.

The movie is reportedly meant as allegorical commentary on the economic situation in Spain, and I suppose I would understand the significance of certain things if I were up on my European economic crises, but I don't think understanding the allegory would help to make the movie any funnier.

Worthwhile only for Almodovar completists, I'm afraid.

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