Sevillanas de Brooklyn

This amusing and wry comedy with humorous happenings that takes place in Sevilla . A fun and really funny comedy blending humor, chuckles , tongue-in-cheek, entertainment, amusement, a lot of laughs and decent performances. The story begins with Ana (Carolina Yuste) , a university student who is the pride of her mother, but the family urgently needs income. To prevent the young woman from dropping out of school and going to work, her mother (Estefanía de los Santos) devised a way to achieve it. As they impersonate an upper-class family and get a wealthy American (Sergio Momo) to take in a poor neighborhood. Then Ana starts a relationship with the African-American boy her mum is hosting to avoid eviction . Fillmaker Vicente Villanueva directs this romantic comedy with a Sevillana scheme : 1º the woman shines and the man goes to meet her. 2º the distances are shortened . 3º the spell is broken ....

An endearing and soft comedy , it is stunningly starred by Carolina Yuste and Sergio Momo who create a competent couple in a low-energy film, where everything is in its place. A nice work with its shortcomings that stands out both for its elegant execution and for the rough edges , it ends up shaping a story that is as functional as it is consistent with the style of our best screenwriters . Amusing , funny and very cheerful film filled with emotion , action , hilarious set-pieces, tongue-in-cheek and lots of humor . Carolina Yuste gives a sympathetic acting as the young Ana, a Sevillian girl sick of her family and her neighborhood, she's the last great revelation of the Spanish cinema and winner of a Goya award for her interpretation in ¨Carmen and Lola¨ , while Sergio Momo (Elite) is the student who goes to meet her. Together with them a nice secondary cast who are completing the group of diverse relatives and neighbors with whom the newly arrived student will have to live and learn to love. As Estefania de los Santos gives life to to mom Carmen and Manolo Solo as dad Antonio . Villanueva uses its good ingredients , script , actors and staging, without presumption, to present a film up to their standards : fast, fun , with some heart and feeling for a large audience , and light enough but without being annoying . The premise is simple and plain , while director delivers a good work with too much things on its perfect site , as Villanueva carries out a portentous knack of getting the most out of characters and situations without ever going over the top making for some very big laughs . The magnificent starring duo , Carolina Yuste and Sergio Momo , being well accompanied by a good support cast , such as Manolo Solo , Canco Rodríguez , María Alfonsa Rosso , Andrea Haro , José Ramón Serra , Neizan Fernandez , Adelfa Calvo , among others.

It packs a lively and catching musical score by Riki Rivera with plenty of Flamenco sounds and dancing . As well as a colorful, adequate cinematography by Luis Ángel Pérez . The motion picture was well directed by Vicente Villanueva. He is a good artisan , writer, producer and filmmaker, who has directed shorts as Eres, Heteroxesuales y casados, and a few films such as ¨Lo contrario al amor¨ and ¨Born to win with¨ Alejandra Jimenez and Victoria Abril , being ¨TOC TOC¨ his greatest hit. Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth watching for Spanish comedy enthusiasts.

Rom-com set in Seville about an American student coming to Spain on some exchange program and gets placed in a working class home instead of some high class, golf-playing rich cliche family. The poor family is not what he expected but they are all very honest, down to earth and unintentionally funny. And as the story goes, he falls in love and all the other tropes we've seen many times before.

For me personally, the biggest issue is that lead actor can not, in any way, be perceived as a born American (and from Brooklyn nontheless) since he barely speaks English language. He, and his soon to be ex, girlfriend have trouble talking in what should be their native tongue.

The story itself is nothing new, with some laughs here and there. The main family is funny and came accross as very likeable but most of the other characters are annoying - especially the lead actor.

I watched this at a festival of spanish film but was a bit dissapointed

5 out of 10.