rinoa-3

Ugly Louis Garrel, French Zooey Deschanel (special offer: comes with bonus facial expressions), her obviously younger mother and a random old gay dude come together in this delightful romantic comedy that, from the start, never pretends to be anything else. With some truly laugh-out-loud funny scenes mixed with the occasional ― unexpectedly good ― thought-provoking line, this Woody-Allen-meets-Richard-Curtis -meets-"The-Intouchables"-meets- "Music-and-Lyrics"-meets,- well,-every-romcom-from-the-'90s piece constitutes 95 minutes of solid modern entertainment (with a nice soundtrack to boot!), and seems to me to have been misjudged and slightly underrated by common viewers and critics alike.

Don't try to make more of it than it is. Like all romantic comedies, 'Les Gamins' intends to be nothing but a nice little declaration of the Love That Conquers All, including obviously impossible competitions and midlife crises. Unlike all romantic comedies, it can actually make you laugh, and the main relationship portrayed has a very nice ring to it (especially in the beginning of the story, where Thomas and Lola could pass for a couple from practically any tasteful witty/intellectual drama).

Also, Iggy Pop?

Well, if you're looking for a way to spend a relaxed hour and a half that is both fun and sweet but will not give you a cheesy overdose, watch this ― though I do suppose it makes for a pretty good date movie as well.

I must confess I was slightly disappointed. This film starts off great: a good premise, well-rounded characters and more than decent directing, all wrapped up in a wonderful mixed atmosphere of the "drama" and "crime" genres -- to sum it up, it strikes up your interest immediately, and is both friendly and captivatingly serious from the start. However, for most of its runtime from then on, "El secreto de sus ojos" feels both cheesy and pointless, presenting the murder case as (presumably) solved and focusing way too much on the seemingly eternal (yet never consummated) romantic attraction between the male and female protagonist. It's not that it gets boring; it just loses its focus for a little too long, and, not being a fan of the "romance" genre, I'll admit this bothered me.

Still, this film has a respectable amount of both hilarious and shocking scenes, and considerably redeems itself with its unexpected, twisted ending (I mean the part relating to the murder case, not the, once again, horribly cheesy romantic part), which will definitely have you curious for a while and then leave you thinking. Overall, I'd describe this picture as having great potential to be extraordinary, but ultimately failing to completely live up to it, not meeting certain expectations and becoming, for too big a part of it, ordinary. With that said, and while I was, all in all, disappointed, I still urge people to go see this movie -- it's much better than most of the girly vampires/dancing crap out there these days, anyway.