Euro-pudding version of Friends or This Life – some Gen X’s ers sharing an apartment in Barcelona. I admit I have an instinctive prejudice against these films – expats are annoying creatures, their problems so low. But I guess that’s jealousy. This takes too long for the hero to get to the apartment – indeed, half an hour could have been cut out – and I wasn’t wild about some of the casting (eg the lead looked funny in some shots) but it’s got plenty of high spirits and life.
The subplots all feel real: an affair with a neglected wife, the visit of a boorish brother, much bed hopping, the reveal of adultery, struggling to adapt to a new city. It’s a spinout to watch a film about the French in Spain.
It’s a shame some of the other flatmates weren’t fleshed out more – they could have taken up some of the two hour running time devoted to the lead. And did he have to decide to become a writer at the end? Can’t writers come up with anything else non-conformist for their liberated characters to do?
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