0
0
These days, people take flying very seriously. There are so many rules and regulations and security procedures that are strictly enforced to ensure that everyone is safe and secure from departure to destination. So maybe that’s why director Pedro Almodóvar’s playful airline comedy, I’m So Excited (Los Amantes Pasjeros), is such an enjoyably bizarre experience.
I’m So Excited boards Peninsula Flight 2549 to Mexico City with a crew that’s just as eccentric as the passengers. Bruna (Lola Dueñas) is a psychic who has a feeling that something important is going to happen on the flight—and that it will change all of their lives for the better. What she doesn’t know, however, is that the plane’s landing gear has been damaged—and the pilots are searching for the right place to make an emergency landing.
As the plane’s economy class passengers sleep their way through the ordeal in a doped-up haze, the business class flight attendants try to entertain their passengers—and, once they find out the truth, keep them all as calm as possible.
It can’t be easy to make a story that takes place almost entirely on a malfunctioning plane feel fresh and playful and fun, but that’s exactly what Almodóvar does with this quirky comedy. Despite the seriousness of the situation—and the resulting melodrama—the film is often wildly inappropriate and outrageously hilarious. There’s plenty of drama as the passengers come to grips with the fact that they may not make it off the plane alive, but it never feels heavy or depressing. In fact, just when you think the tone might change, one of the characters will do something completely crazy. Instead of worrying about the condition of the plane, most of the crew members (and some of the passengers, too) are more concerned about the condition of their sex lives. And with each shot of vodka that the flamboyant flight attendants toss back, their actions become more outrageous—and more hilarious.
The characters’ surroundings, meanwhile, are just as vibrant as the characters themselves. Though the majority of the film takes place aboard the plane, there’s something about the stylized setting that evokes memories of a time when flying was truly a luxury—of the jet-setting ‘60s, perhaps. And the action moves around the plane enough to keep the film from feeling stale and claustrophobic.
Admittedly, I’m So Excited is so wild and crazy and completely over the top that it requires a rather twisted sense of humor. But, thanks to the colorful characters and their screwball antics, it’s quite possibly the wackiest airline comedy since Airplane!
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
