joelsegarra

It's been awhile since my last review but I cannot stop myself from recommending this movie. Be warned that you won't get out of the movie palace knowing the tricks to pack gold on your pockets but maybe be able to question your everyday routine and finally pursue something else. The clan master has a dream but needs sons and relatives to implement it and those oblige themselves not without questioning their own personal reasons. Good performances... who would have guessed how boring playing roulette can be? But make no mistake... it's the conflict of interests of all involved who keep you tuned. Let's make this 10 lines for the sake of publishing! Cheers and enjoy!

This little comedy is about Albert who's repenting his decision to marry and takes guitar lessons with special-people (read retarded) to distract himself before the wedding takes place or not. If you have a taste for youtube videos featuring retarded people then this movie is not for you. Don't expect a sentimental tragedy instead. This is something else. This is Espinosa's first feature film -David on screen. The same guy who wrote the script for 'Tu vida en 65 minutos' brings us to a place of unease and uncertainty, mixing the obvious anxiety in Albert's face with David's outbursts about letting it-all-go with handy jobs. Espinosa takes the same approach as Woody Allen in many aspects, specially writing, but then he throws in some visual poetry and a voice-over to make you think what makes us special and what makes us jerks.

Life, cards, luck and Russian Roulette... this is why this comment has the spoiler option checked.

This film evokes Valencia illegal gaming back in the seventies. A young peasant -Ferran- plays cards not much to make a living but as a distraction of his daily routine. Ferran meets a larger-than-life character -el chino- who happens to play cards for a living. This other guy is depicted as a Toni Manero look alike but his charisma an arrogance lead the innocent Ferran to join him in his schemes to make money to end up betting all on the next card table.

At some point the action moves to Madrid and Ferran steps down losing track of El chino who takes on more dangerous games making a living out of Russian Roulette until the round gets loaded.

Based on real events this is no Hollywood epic but it captures the desperation of the characters very effectively.