Almodovar goes back to farce in ‘I’m So Excited’
PUTTING THE ‘ASS’ IN ‘BUSINESS CLASS’ | Pedro Almodovar, far right, returns to his wheelhouse of true farce in the sexed-up gay comedy ‘I’m So Excited.’
ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Life+Style Editor
Pedro Almodovar has always been such an outrageous director, it’s easy to forget that he doesn’t make all that many comedies. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which shot him into the international stratosphere in 1988, was his last out-and-out farce (despite wacky dark humor in films like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and Talk to Her). So is it right to call his latest feature, I’m So Excited (Los Amantes Pasajeros), a homecoming? Cuz that’s exactly what it feels like.
Almodovar emphasizes the throwback quality, in part, with the casting of Pedro’s best alumni: In this one film, he features performances by Antonio Banderas (The Skin I Live In, Matador), Penelope Cruz (Volver, Broken Embraces), Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother), Javier Camara (Talk to Her) and virtually every other face onscreen has appeared in a prior Pedro movie. It gives I’m So Excited the energy of a labor of love, where everyone comes together to have a good time.
And oh, what a good time they — and we — have.
Peninsula Airlines is headed from Madrid to Mexico City, a flying Ship of Fools: Business class is populated by people with secrets. There’s the famous actor and lothario Ricardo (Guillermo Toledo); Norma (Roth), an aging madame of sorts; Bruna (Lola Duenas), a psychic who is also a virgin; a businessman (Jose Luis Torrijo) on the run from the law; and the gayest flight crew since a Falcon Video shoot.
Early in the flight, however, things take a turn worthy of Stephen King. Everyone in economy is unconscious, and the gay flight attendants — Joserra (Camara), Ulloa (Raul Arevalo) and Fajas (Carlos Areces) — are drinking heavily. Something is definitely wrong with the plane. And it’s serious.
So serious, in fact, that the only way to deal with the horrors of what might befall them is with booze, jokes and a little bit of cabaret. When the flight crew wants to distract the passengers from impending doom, they do a lip-synched version of the Pointer Sisters hit, soaring through the aisles in elaborate choreography. It’s a drag show without boas.
It is, simply, insane.
That’s what makes a farce a farce, and you have to leave your sensibilities at the door with I’m So Excited. Assassination, ESP, suicidal girlfriends, the chance passing off of a cell phone … the coincidences run far outside the realm of the possible.
But it’s easy to fall for the film anyway, despite weird detours (Banderas and Cruz, playing married ground crew workers, appear in the first scene then disappear), wishful thinking (everyone on the plane is queer) and occasional failures of finesse. Almodovar has such an unbridled sense of enchantment, and delivers such an unapologetically sexy concoction (serial fellatio!) that it wins you over.
Or it will if you’re ready for its frankness. I’m So Excited isn’t merely ribald, with racy, suggestive humor; it’s downright out-and-proud about its gay agenda. Joserra is in love with the flight’s captain, who is himself married to a woman; the captain also enjoys an occasional blowjob from his co-pilot (Hugo Silva), another married man whose wife doesn’t satisfy him; even one of the female flight attendants in coach is transgender. There are more than a few crotch shots and discussions of penis size.
But there’s always an undercurrent of tension with Almodovar. It’s not just the flight, but the emotional lives of the characters: Roth is excellent as the fading glamour goddess, and the queeny stewards reveal honest backgrounds that surprise you.
I’m So Excited won’t tickle every funnybone, but if nothing else, it’s a welcome return by Almodovar to a genre he has proven bona fides in. So much farce nowadays is about hormonal teenaged boys obsessed with big breasts; it’s nice to see one made for adults who aim higher … as well as a bit lower.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 19, 2013.