Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed

This is a quiet gentle movie full of humor and understanding about the sometimes painful but rewarding journey to adult hood.

Of huge assistance to those young folk making this journey is a really talented teacher; don't just take my word for it - learn from the movie what Lennon did to assist the teacher in his quest.

Also interesting to show what life is like living in a fascist state - fascism starts in the family and at school.

The director David Trueba is clearly a talent to watch - he was a screenwriter on the much darker confronting but interesting Perdita Durango (Dance with the devil - 1997) - he clearly has real insight into human nature. This is a much kinder more thoughtful film and one for all of us.

9/10 for me (there are no tens).

This charming, quirky film written and directed by David Trueba seems tailor-made for Javier Cámara who delivers a tender performance. (Viewers will remember Cámara's role as Simon in the wonderful film The Silent Life of Words.) Here Cámara plays Antonio, a high school English and Latin teacher, on a quest to meet John Lennon. Lennon is briefly in Almeria (south-eastern Spain; preferred location for Spaghetti Westerns). The movie title, Living is Easy With Eyes Closed is a line from Strawberry Fields Forever which Lennon wrote while in Almeria. En route to the coast, the optimistic and playful Antonio first picks up Belen and later Juan Jo, both runaways. At the final destination, the trio soon meet Ramon, a bar owner, and his disabled son Bruno. The story's themes, among others, are kindness, friendship, determination, dignity, bullying and revenge. To me the movie title is ironic since Antonio doesn't go through life with his eyes closed; he sees and understands everything. There are gaps in the film: after a theater scene why is Belen driving while Antonio appears drunk? Yet, the brutal face slapping and ear pulling are true of these times under Franco's regime. Watch this film, it's worth it.

This is a wonderful film, albeit on the slow side with no histrionics, with three different characters all trying to find their pathway in life.

It's a road movie about a middle-age teacher and two much younger adults. The character interactions are fascinating and simply grow on you as the film develops. We come too feel for each of them. This is very character driven film with a slow intensity. The Spanish landscape is arid and serves to reinforce the struggle they are undergoing. At the end we sense a resolution to their journey and a sense of fulfillment. The human aspect is highly developed with a strong emotional pull throughout.

For John Lennon and Beatle fans there is only a slight appearance of John towards the finale.

"Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed" is a beautiful movie. The acting and direction are charming and fresh. I particularly loved the film and felt connected to it, even though I am not the greatest Beatles fan.

The story is of an English teacher, obsessed with The Beatles, particularly with John Lennon. He is planning to meet John Lennon in person and ask him a bunch of questions, or maybe simply talk to him. Don't all of us dream of doing the same with our favorite celebrity? On his way, while driving his cute 60s car, he picks up two young hitchhikers.

The story has a slow pace, focusing on characters rather than action. The pace allows us to get acquainted with the characters, know their stories and their purposes. The pace might be too slow for some people, I am pretty sure my boyfriend doze off for some minutes while watching.

As for me, I loved the way the characters were developed, while the actors portrayed them beautifully. I loved the relationship between Antonio, a middle-aged guy, and the two young hitchhikers, one of whom is only sixteen: while he occasionally gives them some lessons about life ("no matter what you do, you cannot live in fear!"), he treats them as adults and respects their decisions ("you must have been an adult when you got into this situation, I'm sure you'll solve it as an adult").

A gorgeous little gem to watch, it has a heart-warming feeling and some characters that are as human as they can get.

The factual story of Juan Carrion has never been spread before and should be known by everyone interested in The Beatles and involved in Education from now on thanks to this great movie. It shows an actual character, a Spanish teacher of English who begun to teach English through Beatles songs as soon as the Fabs became famous and when he found out John Lennon was acting in Almeria location he aimed to meet him to thank him for his involuntary played role as a teacher -ironic, being John so reluctant of teachers-. The plot is not focused only on this teacher but on two youngsters who have left their homes for different reasons. It is a good feelings road movie to Almeria, where by that year of 1966 had turned into the European Hollywood. Since Lawrence of Arabia was shot over there, Clint Eastwood,Anthonny Quinn, Brigite Bardot and so many other stars had passed by the same sunny place than John Lennon. It was not because of his likening of The Beatles, nor liberty nor politics who drove Juan to meet John but his deep respect for his pupils. He wanted to have the lyrics first to provide their pupils with them as soon as possible. For millions of non-English native speakers Beatles fans around the world Beatles songs used to mean more sounds than words and messages. Unfortunately, for those whose mother tongue is English have been very difficult to understand that English have to be learned hardly day by day. When Seargent Pepper's album came out with its lyrics printed, that decision was taken as a normal one. But no one -not even the cleverest Beatles researchers- until nowadays had a reason why The Beatles decided to do so. The reason remained in Almeria, Spain, between John and this man called Juan Carrion. I sincerely hope 'Living is easy' gets to your countries soon so that you can enjoy of this beautiful movie and the story behind.