Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

not as good as all the hype

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Although this starts out promisingly, a woman in a car is weaving around dark roads in the middle of the night in the middle of the forest until she almost hits a man holding a lizard! This gave me the impression that we were going to see something special, something almost David Lynchian (if there is such a term), but unfortunately, the film starts to go everyplace, not having a core center, just sort of meandering story about a woman trying to solve a mystery of a small town. The character study goes all over the place, and I couldn't really care for any of the characters it seems, especially when some of the story all of a sudden goes into flashback mode. I had some hopes for this movie, but all in all, it was a bit of a letdown.

Not since 'A Hard Days Night' can I remember a film where I became so attached to the characters in the drama that I almost didn't believe I was seeing a fictional movie, but a documentary with an omniscient camera secretly filming reality. Viewers can't help but fall deeply in love with Lourdes, played by Barbara Lennie. She is impossibly perfect for the role, and in it; both because of her incredible natural beauty, and because of her flawless ability to make us believe that she isn't acting. But something is missing in the film. As the other reviewer commented, there are a few stories going forward in parallel, but you feel there may have been more that weren't included. So it feels somehow, incomplete. The other reviewer knew about the missing parts from the book, and the missing political overtones. I didn't, but subconsciously, I was hungering for them near the end of the film. This is one of those films where, you feel they may have had, or could have had a perfect 3 hour movie, but had to edit it down to two hours and perhaps cut out some of the most interesting parts. Lourdes carries the burden of three romances: the romance between her and her lover in the film, the one developing between her and the audience; and finally the one with Obaba. The nude scenes of the actress early in the film may have been as important in breaking the tension between her and the audience as they were breaking that between her and her lover. It's my personal biased opinion (interpretation), that the director of the film was only able to make us fall that deeply in love with her because we were looking through his eyes; his, and those of Obaba the town's itself! So what's the point? Are we, from this point on, able to be as seduced by Obaba as she was? With her seduction of her lover and us complete... the story can shift its emphasis onto the love affair between her and Obaba, the town, which covets her as much as we did. But how can a town seduce a beautiful, successful film student? In any case, this film is charming, and a very fascinating portrayal of the heart of Obaba, a character with a complex personality that in the end, is the principal character in the film.

I am looking at all the good reviews about this film and I start thinking to myself... Am I going crazy..? Can't I see the beauty from a film like this..? Am I just dumb enough to NOT understand the message this film is trying to point out? I don't know.. maybe one of those lizards entered in my head and ate all my brains as well. The film idea was going nowhere... I was sure it would have a foggy end, and of course... it did! Nothing exceptional... Not even the landscapes (I hopped that being placed in a mountain village at least the landscapes would be nice.. but no). Just a lame story about a crazy teacher, and of course her crazy students... now all grown up, each of them.. with his/her own fixed ideas. And boy some of those ideas were stupid.. like the lizard story for example. At a moment I thought I was watching x files.. with the lizard entering in the ear and all. No.. from my point of view this movie is a waste of time (not to say money if U pay for the ticket) The only part that I did like was the acting of the young blue eye "german" kid... He played very well and convincing for his age... The rest... nothing! I read the previous review and I think the script writer and the director were both on drugs when they came up with those ideas. Well considering that there are a lot of people that enjoyed this film... I think to myself again.. Maybe I am the crazy one. Advice.. Don't waste your time with this!

With great expectations I went to see this film, Spain's contribution to the Oscar-race this year. Part from being completely pointless, banal, pathetic, badly written, edited, acted and directed, the movie is too long. It fails in delivering the "message" it tries to give, fails in its storytelling, clumsy historical settings and above all in its rhythm. There are some so extreme misfires I haven't seen in a movie in a long time (the story of Lucas whose dead sister lives in his head, the divine revelations, all that lizard nonsense). The Spanish-speaking audience around me was yawning and rapidly losing patience, and some of the commentaries I overheard was whether the members of the Spanish Academy had taken drugs before choosing the film for the Oscar contest.