Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasán

This is a strange film. Maybe it is because of its plot or its cast, specially, the amazing Pablo Carbonell. The movie never seems to get serious, neither the behavior of Pablo, witch gives another kind of vision to a movie that in other treatment could be something very similar to what we saw a few years ago in Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut". The same idea with a diferent perspective. A comedy involving a high class secret society and two brothers, whom are the opposite from each other. One of them is the aolder one, leader of his dads company and a responsible and serious man. The other one, the younger, is some kind of Jeff Lebowsky, like Jeff Bridges in the Big Lebowsky, who finds himself involved in the investigation of the vanishing of his older brother strangely linked with a secret society called The Stronghold or Worm or something like this. You must watch this film. It's a well done comedy done by one of the members of the comedy company El Tricicle. Directed with intelligence and with a good domain of the visual language. Outstanding movie.

Pablo MIralles (Pablo Carbonell) is a thirty-something misfit, lazy, misogynist, brothel lover and well-known online philosopher. He finds himself immersed in a plot full of alcoholic joys, high-class dinners, disastrous dalliances and web pages of dubious content in his attempt to clarify the sudden disappearance of his brother (José Coronado). Then the events will acquire dreamlike qualities and will end up leading to the "Fortaleza", an invisible citadel in the heart of the new Barcelona of wonders. Urged by his hateful sister-in-law Gloria (Marta Belaustegui), Pablo begins the search for his brother, which leads to dire consequences. What seems, at first, to be the typical skirt mess between boss and secretary now appears to be a possible kidnapping. Together with his ex-girlfriend (Nathalie Seseña), determined to help him, he discovers a secret philosophical society, related to a luxury brothel inspired by the Divine Comedy.

One of the three members of the theater group ¨El Tricicle¨, Paco Mir, who already directed the silent film ¨Palace¨, makes his solo film debut with this adaptation of Pablo Tusset's bestseller. In addition to achieving acceptable performances and an adequate integration of the supporting cast, Mir has incorporated a wide range of visual gags into the intrigue plot, the result of his theatrical heritage and mimic. The result is a comedy that is broadly nourished by the picaresque tradition and little by little grows with the frenetic pace of contemporary life. The main role is played by Pablo Carbonell (El Furgón, Pieza maestra), sympathetically playing a misfit, misogynistic, foul-mouthed, bankrupt thirty-something and well-known philosopher/web hacker who finds himself involved in solving a mystery in Barcelona when his brother disappears. Suddenly, and meanwhile he takes us aboard his luxurious James Bond-style sports car in order to give us a ride. The film is full of silly intrigue sprinkled with alcoholic investigations, nudism, twisted events, a website with dubious content and venereal adventures. But what began as a mysterious disappearance will acquire dreamlike qualities and will take Pablo to La Fortaleza, an invisible fortification in the new Barcelona of wonders.

Pablo Carbonell is well accompanied by a great cast, such as: José Coronado (La Vida Mancha, Caja 507), as well as Nathalie Seseña (Atomica, Canícola), Marta Belaustegui (Gitano, Marta y alrededores), Irene Montalá (Nubes de verano, Amigo/amado), Pep Ferrer (Sé quien eres, Los renglones torcidos de Dios, Merlí). Adding cameos from de Andreu Buenafuente and his wife Silvia Abril. It displays an appropriate cinematography by Kiko de la Rica (Lucía y el sexo, La comunidad, Malnazidos, Mediterraneo), considered to be one of the best Spanish cameramen. Equally, it packs a lively and attractive music with special collaboration from Pepín Te, Gran Wyoming, and Santiago Segura. Rating: 5/10.

Pablo Tusset's novel "Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasán" was an unexpected hit at the time of publishing. I read it from cover to cover in a long journey by train, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was really looking forward to the big screen adaptation. When I heard the first casting news, I pleasantly discovered that the main character was to be played by Pablo Carbonell, who seemed to have been born to play Pablo Miralles. José Coronado, Marta Belaustegui and Nathalie Seseña were also the ideal actors to play their characters.

So I had high expectations towards this movie, and I have to say that most of them were met by Mir's adaptation. Of course I liked the book more, but that's something usually happens with book-to-film adaptations. The film managed to capture the essence of Tusset's novel, but most of the humor and the complexity of the mystery plot were lost somewhere in between the book and the script. Still a passable comedy/mystery movie, it does not reach the high quality of the original. Pablo Carbonell and the rest of the cast do their best with their characters, José Coronado being specially remarkable as the main character's brother. If Spanish cinema were more keen on genre movies, Coronado might well be our very own action hero, judging from his scenes in this one.

If you're open for a few laughs you probably won't regret watching "Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasán", but I would really recommend to read the book too.

Overall rating: 6/10

Well, first of all, this movie could be considered as a thriller... but with loads of comedy. Adaptation of a novel by Catalonian writer Pablo Tusset "The best that can happen to a croissant"...this last word with a Spanish pronunciation: cruasán. Pablo is a just and only concerned about drugs, sex and alcohol "bon-vivant" of a well-known rich influent family of Barcelona...he is just the opposite of his brother Sebastián. Sebastián asks Pablo to investigate a strange old mansion in the very downtown of Barcelona...but the day after Sebastián disappears apparently with no reason. Pablo has to solve the case in the way of a hard-faced Inspector Clousseau. It really worths watching it and Pablo Carbonell is extremely funny, supported by an extraordinary script written between the proper novelist Tusset himself and the director Paco Mir (one of the components of the Catalonian comical silent threesome known as Tricicle)

P.S. The sentence of the summary is a clue about what the movie is about