My colleague, who saw the film with me at the GFT in
Glasgow, described Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited (2013) as a ‘Carry On
movie with balls’ an apt description considering the subject matter! His latest film is a return to the joyously
wacky films included within his superb body of work and differs entirely from
his previous film The
Skin I Live In (2011) a much darker outing described as a ‘horror film for
adults’ when it was screened at the RBCFT Film Club.
Most of I’m So Excited
is set on a passenger plane bound for Mexico City. Its landing gear has been badly
damaged when a pregnant baggage truck driver (Penelope Cruz) and her husband
(Antonio Banderas), who is responsible for inspecting the removal of the airliners
chocks, are involved in a minor incident on the airport runway. The plane is
airborne before the crew discover that they will have to execute an emergency
landing without the use of the landing gear! The passengers flying economy
class are all in a deep sleep; drugged by the female cabin staff, while the seven
business class passengers, a dominatrix to the rich and powerful (Cecilia
Roth), a virgin clairvoyant who can sense the presence of death (Lola Duenas),
a financier on the run wanted for a massive fraud, an actor fleeing a women who
he once loved who is now threatening suicide, a Mexican hit man, a newly
married young couple and the three gay male cabin crew, all of whom are fully
aware of the impending disaster. It’s
these characters along with the bi-sexual pilot and co-pilot that are central
to Almodovar’s comedic story.
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| Don't get to excited! |
This is the first of the Spanish directors films where in
the opening credits he uses his full name rather than just Almodovar. But the
film retains the rich colours provided by regular cinematographer Jose Luis
Alcaine and the opening credits are in his normal 1980’s style. Although not a
complex film Almodovar does attempt an analogy of modern Spain and its economic
crisis[1]. The
movies comic highlight is a mime by the very camp stewards of the Pointer
Sister’s 1982 hit record that gives the film its English title. To be a cinemagoer is to be a kind of
voyager, connected to strangers in the dark, warmed by the promise of shared
pleasure, despite what horrors may be unfolding in the the bright light of
reality [2]. I
can promise that for the 90 minutes that Pedro Almodovar’s entertaining film
takes to unfold its colourfully risqué story you will forget the bright light of reality.
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| Flying Business Class. |
[1] In a recent interview with Shereen Low of The
Independent Almodovar states that the metaphor of the crippled plane has darker
resonances ‘going around in circles without knowing when you’re going to land,
making emergency landings and living with a sense of uncertainty and fear
reflects the situation in Spain’
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