Summer Rain

Also known as Camino de los ingleses (The English Road), this Spanish movie is directed by Antonio Bandera. I'm rather impressed by his cinematography. He pays very close detail to the mood and development of the various characters but a still seems a little tad bit loosely connected the storyboard development.

The movie features four young men, Miguelito and his friends Paco and Babi. Miguelito has a kidney removed and his dream is forever altered. He inspires to be a poet and met with the beautiful Luli, who dreams of being a ballet dancer. Paco has an estranged relationship with his mafia father who is constantly nagging him to ditch his hot-bod girlfriend. Babi never understands his parents till he reunites with his mother when she plans for her wedding in London.

During this summer in 1970, theses young men experience accelerated growth into adulthood and get caught up with love, passion, romance and lust. The young and impressionables are also brave and yet foolish like a newborn lamb. The tempo of the movie does get a little slow and confusing from time to time. Perhaps there is an overzealous editing which might have caused it to lose some flavour as compared to the original novel. Yet it is still delightful to see the final growth of the young men despite that fact that life is at times rather harsh and brutal in bringing the truth to our faces.

Rating: 3 out of 5 fairy clouds. I hate using the term coming-of-age, but this movie is really a coming-of-age movie. A decent movie, but not my cup of tea yet. Got a little too boring at a couple of different spots during the movie.