The Spanish Apartment (2002)

not horrible nor great

A Disappointing Continuation

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Super vulgar, awfully acted, full of dumb and atrocious clichés from start to finish, this is the new wave of french cinema aka the XXIth century one and should get avoided like the plague at ALL COSTS. People like Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, Bernard Blier and Michel Audiard are surely rolling on their graves watching those abortions of "movies". No wonder the new youth generation has no clue about what's "good" and what's "bad" with those kind of movies telling them to act like that. One advice from somebody that was born in France and grew up with a lot of great french movies : avoid anything filmed and directed by Cedric Klapisch, he has never ever made a single good movie to save his overrated life. Go watch legit funny and touching french classic about youth like "A nous les petites anglaises" or "l'Hôtel de la plage" from the 60s with great acting, directing and music from Mort Shuman and others.

This is a friendly, quite fun film that explores European identity and young people getting along - or at least trying to. I'm writing this is as an older person who was never been a student, but was that age, once.Xavier (Romain Duras), a Parisian who wants to study Economics, goes on an exchange programme to Barcelona and the film charts his successes - and failures - along the way. There's everything from change of language, that Catalan is spoken instead of Spanish at his University and of, course, finding accommodation - that scourge of all students.When he does finally find somewhere, it's already populated by an assortment of students each from a different country (I think!), including an English girl from London, Kelly Reilly, who happens to end up doing most of the housework. This naturally conjures up the expected sort of mischiefs and misunderstandings, humorous rather than hilarious, more real life than made up comedy. It's during these nicely scatty and warm interludes when the film shines brightest.Some have accused the individual relationships of both Xavier and Wendy (Reilly) of weakening the strength of the story, but I disagree. They add to the movie's 2 hour length, admittedly and as since both play away from home, so to speak, there's some twists and turns. I enjoyed Xavier's more, partly because his French girlfriend that he leaves behind is the amazingly gorgeous Audrey Tatou (a great excuse to watch the film) and the girl he gets to know intimately, from when she suffers a dizzy spell high up on the Church of Sagrada Familia, the equally lovely Cecile de France, who happens to be married to a neurosurgeon.Many parts are akin to a backpacker's guide, with lots of street scenes and stuff, which are nice to look at, of course. Comedy (sort of) comes when Wendy's brother, wide-boy and bit of a t*sser, William, played by Kevin Bishop, visits for a while. He's cringe-worthingly crass and rather stupid, "accidentally" makes racist remarks and is a certain embarrassment to his sister, who has to literally carry him home after a mega-binge. He pukes to the other's chorus, with guitar, of 'No Woman, No Cry' in the Square, at dawn. So he lived up to our country's unsavoury reputation, at least!After quite a few other things going on, including Wendy's English boyfriend dropping in unexpectedly, whilst Wendy is fooling around with her American lover, the whole lot dissembles much in the same way as it formed, but in reverse. People said their impassioned goodbyes and we then see Xavier back in Paris, starting work.Pot Luck will appeal to all who not only enjoy European travel, Barcelona, of course but also any film that champions human friendships and relationships and one that isn't too heavy. You could watch it on a miserable day and it'd cheer you up and likewise, on a sunny one, as it would seem fitting and even more enjoyable.

Whether you like this movie depends on several factors: first, understanding and appreciation of the various idiosyncratic stereotypes of contrasting European nations and the different microcultures therein, because nearly all the humor and conflict in the movie turns on these points, and second, your tolerance threshold for pieces that rely on stage or screen ambiance to make up for weak plots, because the filmmakers are definitely betting on their ability to sell ambiance and don't even try to present a decent plot.On the first point, I definitely "got" the subtle contrasts and jokes of the various nationalities, though I didn't find them to be particularly "funny." Maybe the problem was that I didn't grow up in Europe and my prior knowledge of the various reference points such as the Castilian vs. Catalan or Walloon vs. Fleming tensions had been gleaned from books. Or maybe it was that the various nationalities were not appropriately incarnated in any form beyond shallow stereotypes (more on that below).On the second point, I will definitely grant that the thrill of watching good characters, setting and atmosphere can make up for a soggy story. The problem was that I had a hard time getting into the ambiance. The characters - including the main character Xavier - weren't people I could relate to. The personalities aren't explored very deeply and the conclusion for Xavier is just totally Deus ex Machina, not simply plot-wise (that would be excusable) but character-wise as well. When they roommates in this apartment - each of a different European nationality - are among themselves, their cultures really aren't delineated beyond a couple of light stories and various mother tongues and accents: they're all drawn on that predictable clichéd Bourgeois Bohemian wrap and the atmosphere in their apartment isn't much more interesting than a typical cannabis light-up.Neither is the atmosphere outside particularly captivating, at least not to me. Erasmus fanatics or hipster types might gawk at the Barcelonian backdrop. To me, Barcelona isn't a particularly beautiful or inspiring city, and while it does have its lovely spots, the film steers focuses a lot more on the BoBo and Eurocratic trappings that, again, a Bourgeois Bohemian might well LOVE, but which I simply cannot relate to.Back in 2006-07 I uncharitably described this movie as something like "pornography for International Relations students." I have mellowed somewhat with age, but I think that judgment is not totally inaccurate, at least judging from the reactions and the demographics of the sorts of people who liked this movie. The ending seems to suggest a sort of idealization of European unity in the form of the E.U. and an irreversible mixing of the various European hipsters. But international relations is more than learning to party with people of a different mother tongue without offending them, I'm afraid. If this is the future of a united Europe, we might want to rethink our approach.

After arriving Xavier ends up settling in with about 6 roommates from various European countries (Italy, Germany, England, Spain, Norway, Belgium) and the wild cast of characters creates some ingenious comic situations. The film though is quite charming, and is dead on in explaining what it is like to live in a foreign land, and to escape your roots. While the stereotypes that are examined are quite played out, they are shown in a way that seems unique to the characters and come out very warm and of course VERY FUNNY. A highlight of the film arrives when Wendy's English brother comes down to visit her, and we discover he's a dumb ass loud mouth comic who thinks he knows everything about all the other countries these people come from. He ends up providing the majority of the funniest scenes by poking fun at every person in the group at his own dumb expense. But the highlight of the film really is how it shows what it means to live in another country. In the beginning we see that Xavier is awkward from fumbling around trying to find his first apartment, to complaining about Catalan, and by the end with the t-shirt he receives from his roommates on the last day, we see how he has been transformed by the friends he has met from all over.Quite a fun film, not perfect, but definitely a great film to see that will but a big smile on your face, and a warm feeling inside you once you have left the theatre.