It Snows in Benidorm

I like Timothy Spall as a actor and the fact i live near Benidorm made it a bit more interesting for me looking for cast extra's i know. The film started off great and then nothing happened. If anything it confused my as to why someone would spend such a budget and why Tim accepted this lead role.

Some of the scenes were plastic looking compared to the real life Benidorm, especially in the nightclub areas, it made the movie look like, almost amaturish. God knows why it was nominated, as after he arrives in Spain and realises his brother is missing, nothing else worth substance really happened. It got really boring, really quickly. It was so exciting, i couldn't wait till the end to start some housework.

I liked this setting, it started sincere, narrated, introducing the protagonist and his peculiarities, tried to keep a mystery/suspense about the brother, but it didn't work very well, we know a little about the Bernidorm culture, however nothing very attractive besides, the story becomes dragged and long...

What a waste of talented actors through bad direction. Even Timothy Spall cannot save this film as it sinks into suffocating banality. Painfully slow and unrewarding. What could of been an interesting plot sinks into two hours of navel gazing. Possible interesting characters are left to struggle with cheap dialogue and a storyline that stutters to a finish before it's time leaving you totally frustrated with the storytelling. Symbolism pops its head up constantly but rarely makes a point, even when it could have helped the film along. Sometimes the location can be the saving of a bad film but even this was frittered away.

Coixet tríes bravely a new poetic film with some good points (Sylvia Plath in the old fishermen' s Benidorm), but losing rhythm and falling inadvertedly in some image and lyric topics

I feel a bit mean posting a poor review of this film. It is clear that the director is trying hard to create a visual language that is charming and menacing at the same time. The story, predicated on a man whose joyless life is upended when he tries to visit his brother in Spain only to find him missing and tied up in shady goings-on. Scenes are bathed in light and garish colour strongly reminiscent of Almodovar and which reflect the main character's escape from the drudgery of his routine life.

At times, the camera lingers on the bacchanalia of Benidorm's nightlife and presents an alienating, decadent and surreal world. All of this seems to be intended to to make us uncomfortable. Regrettably, the scenes are so stylised that they feel pretentious rather than disturbing. The film is trying way too hard to create a disconcerting atmosphere with it's blend of innocence and depravity and its focus on the bizarre details of Benidorm life.

The dialogue is stagey. Attempts at elliptical and thought-provoking conversation are grating and make the film feel longer than it's (already too-long) 2 hours. The police officer spouting Sylvia Plath, for example, is utter nonsense.

Going back to my original comment, the reason I'm uncomfortable leaving this film a poor is that I think the director has real creativity and visual flare. I just think she needs to rein it in and concentrate more on the plot, dialogue and editing, which is what makes this such a mess. It's also a real shame to see Spall, one of this country's finest, involved in this half-baked project.