Alfonso Albacete goes from sociopolitical melodrama and breaks a spear for synergy and the jumble of cultures in the crazy ‘La novia de América’.
In the tragicomic ‘The Rediscovering of Mexico’ (1979), first cousin of ‘Come to Germany Pepe!’ (Lazaga, 1971), Fernando Cortés was already proposing a kind of cultural and, above all, sentimental reconciliation between gachupines and natives, Spaniards and Mexicans, arguing with empathy and soul that immigration is something that has always been practiced, upside down and upside down, in all stages of history and among all nationalities.
The same vocation of rapprochement is the one that agitates ‘La novia de América’, although those responsible prefer not to get involved in depending on which gardens. The territory assaulted by Alfonso Albacete in his latest film to break a spear for synergy and the jumble of cultures is not the sociopolitical melodrama but the romantic salad on two levels.. To do this, he shrewdly makes use of a classic aspect that is very frequented by the latest Spanish comedy (let’s remember the wonderful ‘3 weddings too many’ by Javier Ruiz Caldera and the acceptable ‘Until the wedding separates us’ by Dani de la Orden) and that , far from our geographical limits, was raised to its zenith by Robert Altman in the excellent ‘A wedding day’ (1978).
The film moves, sometimes gracefully, sometimes slightly clumsily, but never lazily, on the margins of imperfection; Albacete overemphasizes the conciliatory and good-natured thesis on the construction and effectiveness of the gag; Look Ibarguren, always agile, has been finer on other occasions, and that gay couple correctly interpreted by Pol Monen and Eduardo Casanova it seems more quota and beings of light than characters of flesh and blood, in addition to giving an understandable chemical imbalance, perhaps mere jet lag, in the cast, so typical of co-productions.
On the other hand, the comedy works quite well in a more basic register, even thick, that surreptitiously unites the two countries in the popular and traditional tradition: the one that is established between the development satires of Mariano Ozores and Pedro Lazaga and the so-called cinema of files, which gave rise to titles as priceless as ‘The day of the masons’ (Martínez Solares, 1984) or ‘Two nacos on the planet of women’ (Alberto Rojas, 1991). Precisely for this reason, the sum is so reminiscent of the tonal self-confidence of uprooting, vocational or circumstantial comedies, as minor and cute as ‘Too hot for you’ (Elorrieta, 1996), ‘Un rey en la Habana’ (Alexis Valdés, 2005) or the recent and largely unnoticed ‘Caribbean: all inclusive’ (García de la Calera, 2020). The result is as uneven as it is happy and virgin of arrhythmias; In any case, preferable to ‘Solo química’, which its manager signed, with some disorientation and reluctance, a whopping eight years ago.
For unconditional faith in love beyond borders and ages
DATA SHEET
Address: Alfonso Albacete Distribution: Miren Ibarguren, Ginés García Millán, Pol Monen, Eduardo Casanova, Pepa Charro Country: Spain Year: 2023 Release date: 2-17-2023 Gender: Comedy Script: Alfonso Albacete, Charo Albacete Duration: 108 min.
Synopsis: Ana, a young Spanish woman who has just been abandoned by her boyfriend, and her brother Tono, receive a call from their father to tell him that he is going to marry a woman he met online in Mexico. Upon arriving there, they discover that the girl is 30 years younger than her parent and begin to live with her new in-laws, with the inevitable culture clashes that this will entail.
Source: Fotogramas
Emily Jhon is a product and service reviewer at Gossipify, known for her honest evaluations and thorough analysis. With a background in marketing and consumer research, she offers valuable insights to readers. She has been writing for Gossipify for several years and has a degree in Marketing and Consumer Research from the University of Oxford.
