Honi_soit_qui

I saw this at a recent film festival, and was refreshed by its compassionate and humane plot and characterisation.

It is set in rural Finland. The female lead runs a struggling restaurant popular with the locals but serving the most bland of food (from our point of view). One day, a mysterious and troubled-seeming Chinese gentleman who also happens to be an experienced chef appears out of nowhere. To cut a long story short, he spices things up and takes over the operation of the lady's restaurant.

But this is only incidental; beneath the superficial plot is a deeply tender and inspiring one about two wounded individuals trying to escape the demons of their past, and falling deeply in love in the process, which is conveyed with rare compassion and affection.

This is that rare thing in cinema: a genuinely wholesome film that is never earnest or sentimental, but genuinely entertaining. It struck me that this is perhaps the first film I have seen in a long time where every single character is likeable, and where I genuinely left the cinema feeling somehow purified. Even the at first insular and seemingly xenophobic restaurant regulars show the deepest magnanimity. It's refreshing, and comes highly recommended.

The film starts out fresh, intelligent and promising a deep investigation of Spain's Francoist past. I saw it tonight at a film festival, but genuinely can't remember where it started to go downhill. But go downhill it does, and fast, eventually reaching the depths of the downright silly, before recapitulating, unsatisfactorily, the Francoist theme right at the end, almost as an afterthought, but in a way that could only possibly be bathetic (pathetic?).

Also, the film is an evident celebration of selfishness, narcissism, irresponsibility and immaturity, without even the benefit of raw subversiveness - more than crude and adolescent. It's difficult to think of a single touching or even interesting moment beyond the ten minute mark, and there isn't a single character who comes close to being likeable, interesting or relatable. I took a full thermos flask of coffee into the cinema with me, and frankly by the halfway mark was desperately wondering how much longer is was going to go on for, making the rare decision to relieve myself mid-film, something I would ordinarily consider rude but in this case was more of a mental health necessity.

Anyway, trying to find some positives, I would point out how well Almadovar directs the film (as ever), and the acting from Cruz is reasonably good, though not her best. Julieta Serrano and Rossy de Palma, two other Almadovar regulars, also do passably well.

If someone offers you free tickets, this may well be a barely tolerable way to kill a particularly slow evening, but I wouldn't pay to see it.

Wanting to get into Mexican cinema and having seen this film (mistakenly) described as "arthouse", as well as seeing the unexplicably favourable reviews it has received here on iMDB, I decided to give it a chance.

The very first scene features gratuitous sex, something I find slightly tasteless, but I kept an open-mind (I was instantly reminded of Betty Blue). Unlike Betty Blue, this film went from bad - to worse - to downright appalling.

I'm hardly a prude, and am quite happy to tolerate sex in aid of some serious purpose, but I just couldn't understand how this film could appeal to anybody other than a teenage male shut-in; it was rather like "The Inbetweeners", but without the suburban charm. Sterile toilet humour and desperate, sub-erotic sex scenes abound from beginning to end, without the faintest suggest of a plot or intelligent characterisation. Even the jokes are terrifically unfunny.

The film, almost as an afterthought, ends on a slightly poignant note; for those of you bored enough to watch it, I will not spoil it by outlining the details. This is the only reason I give the film three rather than two stars, which was my initial intention.