The Other Side of the Bed
Friday, Aug. 29
Sundance Film Series
An all-singing, all-dancing take on infidelity, Spain's "El Otro Lado de la Cama" (The Other Side of the Bed) is a big fluff ball of a sex farce that's so light and flimsy it's a wonder they were able to thread it through the projector.
That apparently suited audiences just fine back home, where the picture, from veteran comedy director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, was one of the country's top-grossing 2002 releases and went on to receive half a dozen Goya Award nominations.
Screened at the just-wrapped Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, it's also one of a group of independent films being released in 10 American markets this fall as part of the inaugural Sundance Film Series.
But it's unlikely "The Other Side of the Bed" will have much of an impact on this side of the pond, considering, among other things, the lack of familiarity viewers will have with the contemporary Spanish pop hits covered by the game but decidedly not golden-throated cast members.
Madrid provides a vivid setting for the ensuing passion that surrounds a pair of couples who have trouble sticking with their original configurations.
To start with, Paula (Natalia Verbeke) has just dumped Pedro (Guillermo Toledo) for a Mystery Man who turns out to be his best buddy and tennis partner Javier (Ernesto Alterio). As Javier keeps the charade going for as long as he can, his in-the-dark girlfriend Sonia (Paz Vega) ultimately provides despondent Pedro with more than a shoulder on which to cry.
Figuring something's up when Sonia fails to come home one night, Javier is convinced she's having an affair -- with a lesbian friend from her theater company.
If all this sounds like it's stuck in some kind of sitcom-y "Love, Iberian Style" vortex, it's probably because David Serrano's cutesy, coincidence-riddled script does little to suggest otherwise.
The big novelty here is that in between all the coupling and recoupling, each of the attractive cast members finds time to express their inner emotions in song and dance -- and the fact that no one in the ensemble can pull off either particularly well actually makes it all rather endearing, at least in the early going.
But after a while, the innocuous tunes, with (translated) titles like "Honeymoon" and "Tell Me That You Love Me", and Pedro Berdayes' charmingly clunky but spirited choreography (imaginatively set in places like health club bathrooms and museums) begin to grow as labored as the script's tangle of deceiving appearances.
Ultimately, those likable actors, particularly Sonia's Paz Vega, who was recently seen in "Talk to Her" and "Sex and Lucia", go a considerable distance in making "The Other Side of the Bed" a comfy but quickly forgettable destination.
The Other Side of the Bed
A Sundance Channel presentation
Credits:
Director: Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, Screenwriter: David Serrano
Producers: Tomas Cimadevella, Jose Antonio Sainz de Vicuna
Director of photography: Juan Molina Temboury
Art director: Julio Torrecilla
Editor: Angel Hernandez-Zoido
Costume designer: Inma Garcia
Music: Roque Banos
Choreographer: Pedro Berdayes
Cast:
Javier: Ernesto Alterio
Sonia: Paz Vega
Pedro: Guillermo Toledo
Paula: Natalia Verbeke
Rafa: Alberto San Juan
Pilar: Maria Esteve
Sagaz: Ramon Barea
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Sundance Film Series
An all-singing, all-dancing take on infidelity, Spain's "El Otro Lado de la Cama" (The Other Side of the Bed) is a big fluff ball of a sex farce that's so light and flimsy it's a wonder they were able to thread it through the projector.
That apparently suited audiences just fine back home, where the picture, from veteran comedy director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, was one of the country's top-grossing 2002 releases and went on to receive half a dozen Goya Award nominations.
Screened at the just-wrapped Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, it's also one of a group of independent films being released in 10 American markets this fall as part of the inaugural Sundance Film Series.
But it's unlikely "The Other Side of the Bed" will have much of an impact on this side of the pond, considering, among other things, the lack of familiarity viewers will have with the contemporary Spanish pop hits covered by the game but decidedly not golden-throated cast members.
Madrid provides a vivid setting for the ensuing passion that surrounds a pair of couples who have trouble sticking with their original configurations.
To start with, Paula (Natalia Verbeke) has just dumped Pedro (Guillermo Toledo) for a Mystery Man who turns out to be his best buddy and tennis partner Javier (Ernesto Alterio). As Javier keeps the charade going for as long as he can, his in-the-dark girlfriend Sonia (Paz Vega) ultimately provides despondent Pedro with more than a shoulder on which to cry.
Figuring something's up when Sonia fails to come home one night, Javier is convinced she's having an affair -- with a lesbian friend from her theater company.
If all this sounds like it's stuck in some kind of sitcom-y "Love, Iberian Style" vortex, it's probably because David Serrano's cutesy, coincidence-riddled script does little to suggest otherwise.
The big novelty here is that in between all the coupling and recoupling, each of the attractive cast members finds time to express their inner emotions in song and dance -- and the fact that no one in the ensemble can pull off either particularly well actually makes it all rather endearing, at least in the early going.
But after a while, the innocuous tunes, with (translated) titles like "Honeymoon" and "Tell Me That You Love Me", and Pedro Berdayes' charmingly clunky but spirited choreography (imaginatively set in places like health club bathrooms and museums) begin to grow as labored as the script's tangle of deceiving appearances.
Ultimately, those likable actors, particularly Sonia's Paz Vega, who was recently seen in "Talk to Her" and "Sex and Lucia", go a considerable distance in making "The Other Side of the Bed" a comfy but quickly forgettable destination.
The Other Side of the Bed
A Sundance Channel presentation
Credits:
Director: Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, Screenwriter: David Serrano
Producers: Tomas Cimadevella, Jose Antonio Sainz de Vicuna
Director of photography: Juan Molina Temboury
Art director: Julio Torrecilla
Editor: Angel Hernandez-Zoido
Costume designer: Inma Garcia
Music: Roque Banos
Choreographer: Pedro Berdayes
Cast:
Javier: Ernesto Alterio
Sonia: Paz Vega
Pedro: Guillermo Toledo
Paula: Natalia Verbeke
Rafa: Alberto San Juan
Pilar: Maria Esteve
Sagaz: Ramon Barea
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/20/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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