This exuberant and highly watchable debut film from director/writer/editor Eusebio Pastrana is essentially about a gay couple who struggle to fulfill their dream of having a child, but its actually more a story about his utopian vision of a world in which all couples, whether gay, straight, or in between, can live happily within the full spectrum of modern families.
For both Garate and Omar it was love at first sight, and their ridiculously impossible but immensely touching scene when they first meet, sets the pace for this enchanting wee comic love story. Pastrana sets it in Madrid in 1995 where he re-imagines that cynicism does not exist as it deals with virtually every life-and-death experience with all the couple’s friends and neighbors. He peppers it with a running gag of showing 101 different kisses throughout the course of the story.
Omar and Garate are both totally dedicated football fans. In Omar’s case it was a passion he picked up from his father who has never got over his Team losing their big Final or the fact that his only son prefers a hairy chest over one that can give him a grandson the old fashioned way. The more determined that Omar & Garate are to become fathers the more obstacles they encounter (most of them hilariously funny) , until they meet Racquel a pregnant women who’s boyfriend has just died of AIDS. Racquel is the most gentlest of lost souls and when she marries the couple and they provide two dads for her son it looks like life could be perfect.
Omar firmly believes that the ecstasy of any moment or the desperation of any situation can be expressed best by just standing and spinning on the spot. A theory he is happy to share with anyone who will join him and literally deal with their emotions through the sheer physical release of just going round and round really fast.
I firmly believe that Spanish filmmakers are the masters of this genre of gay romantic comedy dramas. They fill the screen with such fully-rounded warm really believable and extremely likable characters, odd as they are at times. They imbue the story with such vitality and a genuine passion for life that never fails to engage you fully and has you leaving the theater with a big smile and wishing if only life was just like that. And that more movies made you feel this good too.
Great debut Snr Pastrana, I cannot wait to see what’s next.
Available from Amazon
Labels: 2007, gay, romantic comedy, Spanish
