Review of I'm So Excited! (2013) by Mikael K — 07 Aug 2013

Pedro Almodóvar has grown into one of the most iconic film directors of his generation. Celebrated at international film festivals and loved by critics and audiences alike, his courageous films have never shied away from controversial subjects. His work tends to be romantic on the surface, highly stylized and emotional, but it's often uniqually honest and forward with its motifs.

Almodóvar started directing full-length features in the early 80's. His forte was absurd, melodramatic comedy that was filled with influences and actors from the hidden nightlife of Madrid. Almodóvar spent his youth in the streets and secret clubs and his first movies both featured and starred people he met there. Transvestites, prostitutes and performers of different sort. The atmosphere in those early films of his is one of an alternate reality where taboos and inhibitions are extinct. I belong to the boring group of people who much prefer Almodóvar films from the turn of the millennium. Beautiful melodramas that combine social realism with exceptionally beautiful aesthetics and deep characterization. "Hable con ella" from 2002 is my all-time favorite movie. "La piel que habito" from 2011 was a psychological thriller that already moved away from the drama that had become the norm for the director genius. It was an adapted story, but its wild plotting carried some echoes from those absurd films of the 80's. "Los amantes pasajeros" is a very clear return by Almodóvar to his roots. The story creates its own reality of lost inhibitions by enclosing its characters into a plane that is going to crash. Different personalities collide as impending death loses tongues and morals.

The film is my least favorite from the director since 1993's "Kika," the last comedy of the bunch before this one. There are eight movies between the two. But "Los amantes pasajeros" is still a great movie. The characters are vibrant, the comedy truly funny and the script packed with clever observations on human nature, society and culture. Underneath the farce there is a constant somber tone, it's as if a dead serious and plausible tale of facing death has just been filtered through a colorfully hilarious veil of extravagant show glitter. The feel of the film is much more sophisticated than one might expect; it's directed as a stylized drama despite its goofy premise. The airplane cabin truly becomes a world of its own, the space is used perfectly, in a beautiful and dynamic manner.

I'm still hoping to see more of that deep character drama Almodóvar excells in, but he has become such a wizard that he can make the most disinteresting farce imaginable into something uniquely entertaining and even a bit wise.