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How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 29 April 2013
This article is a review of I'M SO EXCITED. |
“What makes you suppose this is funny?”
So says a character in writer-director Pedro Almodóvar’s deeply disappointing latest. How ironically unironic he is. I’M SO EXCITED is dreadful stuff. A comedy bereft of laughs, and a socially commentary devoid of smarts/bite/wit. Arguably swinging to the other end of his filmmaking sensibility after the brutal THE SKIN I LIVE IN, a minor positive is the demo of his range; but then you remember how many of his oeuvre blurs into one. The standouts are his darker fare – BAD EDUCATION, MATADOR and TALK TO HER – all very impressively exploring human weakness.
So says a character in writer-director Pedro Almodóvar’s deeply disappointing latest. How ironically unironic he is. I’M SO EXCITED is dreadful stuff. A comedy bereft of laughs, and a socially commentary devoid of smarts/bite/wit. Arguably swinging to the other end of his filmmaking sensibility after the brutal THE SKIN I LIVE IN, a minor positive is the demo of his range; but then you remember how many of his oeuvre blurs into one. The standouts are his darker fare – BAD EDUCATION, MATADOR and TALK TO HER – all very impressively exploring human weakness.
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We follow the escapades of the passengers and cabin crew of Peninsula Airlines 2549 on an Airbus 340; the plane is in trouble after the chocks got sucked into the landing gear. Flying from Spain to Mexico City, the aircraft is forced to circle Madrid airspace while a solution is sought. The malfunction was caused by a leaden cameoing Antonio Banderas (León) distracted by lover Penélope Cruz (Jessica).
The three business class air stewards have given the economy section muscle relaxants to ensure they sleep during the flight, so the focus is the wealthy passengers and their unamusing hijinks. The opening titles tell us, “Everything in the film is fiction and fantasy, and bears no resemblance to reality.” With its turquoise interior and dancing crew, there’s no danger of confusing any of this with a typical flight. It’s a similar situation to Uma Thurman’s Bride transporting her samurai sword in a special compartment next to her seat in KILL BILL: VOLUME ONE. The overt information is representative of the heavy-handed look at Spanish fiscal woes.
On board there is an actor, a hitman, a domintrix, a banker on the run, etc., fuelling a crass soap opera sex farce. Revelations spring up, not in a LOST kinda way, though equally pointlessly, but in frustrations reaching a head and emotional outpouring. These include an alcoholic air steward having a love affair with the married pilot; the crew slipping everyone, not already out cold on muscle relaxant, mescaline, triggering an orgy; and passengers contacting loved ones very publically on a faulty sat-phone that broadcasts conversations throughout the plane. I’M SO EXCITED is all very tedious, and the first Almodóvar picture I’ve not enjoyed. A rare outright misfire. A shame, as he’s better than this. Maybe a storytelling muscle needed to be flexed?
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