Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasán (2003)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Paco Mir

Writers:

Paco Mir (writer)
Pablo Tusset (book)

Release Date:

21 November 2003 (Spain)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Kidnapping | Rich Family | Brother

Cast

Pablo Carbonell	...	Pablo Miralles
Pep Ferrer	...	Luigi
Nathalie Seseña	...	Fina
José Coronado	...	Sebastián Miralles
Marta Belaustegui	...	Gloria
Amparo Valle	...	Beba
Ana María Barbany	...	La madre
Arsenio Corsellas	...	El padre (as Arseni Corsellas)
André Oumansky	...	Pierre François
Irene Montalà	...	Carmela
Lola Marceli	...	Lali o Beatriz
Carlos Heredia	...	John
Josep Maria Gimeno	...	Robellades (as José Mª Gimeno)
Antonio Del Valle	...	Roberto
Mercè Puy	...	Secretaria Oficina Miralles

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Color:

Color

Certification:

Spain:13

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Cataluña, Spain

Movie Connections:

References Pretty Woman (1990)

Comedy and mystery in Barcelona

Pablo Tusset's novel "Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasán" was an unexpected hit at the time of publishing. I read it from cover to cover in a long journey by train, and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I was really looking forward to the big screen adaptation. When I heard the first casting news, I pleasantly discovered that the main character was to be played by Pablo Carbonell, who seemed to have been born to play Pablo Miralles. José Coronado, Marta Belaustegui and Nathalie Seseña were also the ideal actors to play their characters.

So I had high expectations towards this movie, and I have to say that most of them were met by Mir's adaptation. Of course I liked the book more, but that's something usually happens with book-to-film adaptations. The film managed to capture the essence of Tusset's novel, but most of the humor and the complexity of the mystery plot were lost somewhere in between the book and the script. Still a passable comedy/mystery movie, it does not reach the high quality of the original. Pablo Carbonell and the rest of the cast do their best with their characters, José Coronado being specially remarkable as the main character's brother. If Spanish cinema were more keen on genre movies, Coronado might well be our very own action hero, judging from his scenes in this one.

If you're open for a few laughs you probably won't regret watching "Lo mejor que le puede pasar a un cruasán", but I would really recommend to read the book too.

Overall rating: 6/10