Keswick Film Club - Reviews - The Other Way Around

Spanish film 'The Other Way Round' shown last Sunday, is a rare comedy for Keswick Film Club and a romantic comedy at that! But the tone and delivery of the film made me wonder about the application of both the terms 'romantic' and 'comedy'.

The film's premise is simple enough – main characters Ale and Alex have been married for 14 years but decide it's no longer working and that it would be sensible to split up. Already I was wondering about the romantic element.

In the ensuing couple of hours we watched as Ale and Alex tell their families and friends, over and over again, both that they are splitting up and that they will be marking it with a party.

And as far as plot goes, that's it; it's the film's entire premise, as not much else happens.

Now, for something as life changing as a marriage break-up you'd expect some level of sorrow, if not recrimination, between the two. But the pair continue to be like-minded in their pursuit, with plenty of warm rapport. So, some sort of romantic feeling is there, but still no sense of how they've concluded they should split up. Intriguing. What's going on?

The film's main delight was in its style and delivery. It's done in a very knowing way with references to cinema and filmmaking built into the story. Ale is a director and Alex an actor, and much is made of references to classic films, on-screen romance and cinematic devices such as split screen and screen wipe.

This isn't the first film to use the technique of cinematic navel-gazing, but at least the twist here had potential to be entertaining and explained a lot about the idea behind making the film. Without giving too much away we were seeing a film within a film, with a lot of cross-over between fact and fiction.

I'd have liked to see something to give an insight to their relationship and how they conclude they should split up. But director Jonas Trueba was more interested in playing around with cinematic form, hoping plenty of comedy would emerge from that. It doesn't.

About two-thirds of the way through the second hour I began almost to enjoy the film – perhaps I was finally falling under the film's spell of repetition.

Apparently, director Jonas Trueba's real-life father, Fernando Trueba, and who plays Ale's father in this film, inspired the making of the film through his long term belief that both a marriage and a separation are to be celebrated. He has a lot to answer for.