I recently had my arm twisted to see this film: a new comedy, produced by Antena 3 television under the new Spanish laws that say that television stations have to make so many films a year to help keep the ailing Spanish film industry afloat. They'd said, on the telly, it was the number one film in Spain that week. However, when we went we were the only two people in the cinema. I now know why. Unfortunately, this film is a prime example of what tends to happen when a government obliges the production of creative material to meet a quota. While it tries to copy the American wave of films like 'American Road Trip' or 'There's Something About Mary,': films that shock and make you laugh at the same time. It really fails on all counts humorously. I think the only part I found really funny was when David Fernández got up and did a Chiquito de la Calzada impression in front of the English staff and family. Most of the humour is based around farcical concepts of dramatic irony, which would have been funny in the nineteen eighties, but now are just corny. There's also a trend in Spanish productions to ignore real-life premises, so they can do anything for the sake of the situation, even when it would not be possible in the real world. This, for me, is an easy way out, because you don't have to worry about how the characters will resolve a situation, because there are no limits on what they can do. A man with two degrees does not accept pills from a stranger in real life, because they could be anything. If one of the characters has a disability, then the girl they fall for, and who falls for them, does not have to have a similar disability. The situations set up are resolved in the most predictable ways, and, although they try to shock, do not create a funny situation. I have seen some very funny Spanish comedies: 'Va ser que nadie es perfecto' 'Perdona bonita, pero Lucas me quería a mí' 'La Comunidad' etc. This film just wasn't up to it.
Review of Brain Drain
