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[Insomnio]

"Living is Easy with Eyes Closed"("Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados") is a Spanish film that combines comedy and drama in the correct doses. It was nominated in seven categories at the Goya Awards (The Spanish Oscar) and it won 6 of them (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best New Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score). The film stood out in other local film festivals and it is the formal proposal of Spain for "Best Foreign Language Film" in the upcoming Oscars. I didn't intend to watch it because I didn't know about these distinctions. However, a nice price at the nearby neighborhood cinema and the enigmatic title persuaded me to go watch it.
"Living is Easy with Eyes Closed" is based on the love and the admiration of a teacher for the music and lyrics of the Beatles. On the occasion of making a film of John Lennon in Spanish territories, the main character finds an excuse to travel by car and go to meet him. On his course, he will find a young girl and a young boy (not at the same time) that do hitchhiking and end up together in the area in which John Lennon is shooting "How I Won the War". The two young people shared the anguish of the protagonist to achieve its purpose while the latter will empathize with the concerns and problems faced by the first two. As a story, it has a romantic naivety and the psychological wellbeing of the main character reminds us of a teenager rather than a mature adult. The story has a pleasant plot, viewed lightly and the dialogues are well written. The performances of the actors are quite good and Javier Cámara (Talk To Her) is convincing as a die hard fan of the Beatles. The director of the film is David Trueba, who also wrote the screenplay. I guess that he is a big fan of the "Beatles" to inspire this particular story. The photography was good and some shots reminded me of Greece. As for the soundtrack of the film, we heard the Beatles tunes in which I regard them top of their kind since they influenced the music of many modern bands. In the negatives, I would put the quality of the picture because it reminded me of anything from the 60's. It looked like it had been shot in the last decades and the actors simply wore old-fashioned clothes. Unfortunately, it didn't persuade me in this part and I feel that this somehow lost the pulse of the time.
"Living is Easy with Eyes Closed" is a light-hearted film with sympathetic performances and delightful story. It is suitable for all ages and I think that fans of the Beatles will identify with the main character (Antonio). It is one of those films that you enjoy on Sunday afternoons on TV and avoid all those terrible shows with cooking. Nevertheless, I couldn't help but wonder how this movie won so many awards. On the other hand, it is the main entry as the official film for Spain at the upcoming Oscars. Having seen several European productions at times, "Living is Easy with Eyes Closed" is not from those movies which steal the show and I guess there wouldn't be a lot of competition among the year's Spanish films to be selected as this.



This post has been edited by Insomnio: 26th October 2014, 09:22 PM