Fernando Trueba is a Spanish director most noted for his 1992 Academy Award winning film Belle Epoch.  In his 2002 drama Shanghai Spell, he attempts to weave fantasy and reality together to form a unique tapestry.  Unfortunately he fails and ends up with a long and meandering film that ultimately doesn't go anywhere.

This movie is told through the eyes of Dani (Fernando Tielve) a fourteen year old boy with a talent for art living in Barcelona after WWII.  His father never returned from the war, and he doesn't know if he's still alive or not, though deep down he knows he'll never see him again.  As a favor to a neighbor, Dani starts watching an old man, Captain Bley (Fernando Fernán Gómez), who's son was killed in the fighting and that fact has taken a toll on his mind.

While strolling through the town one day, Bley convinces himself that he smells a poisonous gas being emitted from the local factory that will surely kill everyone over time.  To combat this threat, Bley comes up with a plan: He'll have Dani draw a picture of Susana (Aida Folch), a local girl who is suffering from TB with the factory smokestack belching fumes in the background.  Using this picture he'll get the local residents to sign a petition to close the factory down.
 
Bley arranges to have Dani draw Susana in the afternoons.  She has been bed ridden for the past two years and near death, but Dani finds her demanding and spoiled.  She refers to him as a "dummy" or "idiot" but he finds himself being attracted to her.  They something in common too.  Susana's father is missing, and she's not sure where he is or when he'll return.  Her father, Kim (Antonio Resines), was a hero during the war fighting the Germans, but had to flee when the other members of his resistance cell were arrested.

So Dani draws Susana in the afternoons and goes around collecting signatures during the day with Captain Bley.  One afternoon a strange man arrived at Susana's house, an old friend of her father's.  Forcat (Eduard Fernández).  Forcat moves in with Susana and her mother, and with the young girl's prodding tells a tale (in black and white) of her father's adventures as a spy and man of action.  These stories of his travels to Shanghai and other exotic locations buoy Susana's spirits, but are they true?

This movie starts off very well, with the young Dani narrating, wondering just where to start the tale.  I found each of the characters that he introduces interesting and was really drawn along, wondering where the story would lead to.  Ultimately I was disappointed though.  The story didn't really lead anywhere, with the main plot changing dramatically in the last 15 minute of the film.

There are several things that just didn't work.  The story Forcat tells about Susana's father, Kim, was fun, but didn't go anywhere or fit in with the main story.  This 'film within a film' just wasted time in my opinion.  If they had left it out, or condensed it into a 3-minute flashback the result would have been the same.

Showing the climax of the movie three times back to back, with each one being slightly different, was redundant to say the least.  The odd thing is, it doesn't really matter which of the three versions 'really happened' as far as the movie is concerned.  (They never do explain which one is true.)  That makes the repeating of this scene all the more mysterious.

The acting was hit of miss.  Fernando Fernán Gómez was outstanding as Captain Bley.  He had the best lines in the film, and really played the character up.  The movie really came alive while he was on the screen.  He played the eccentric, possibly crazy, old man perfectly.

I wish I could say they same for the two juvenile leads.   Fernando Tielve seemed to be trying his best not to show any emotions or feelings throughout the film.  Good events and bad ones had the same effect on him: none at all.  He sleep walked through the film, and his lack of emotion really hampered the film.

Aida Folch, the bed ridden Susana, did show emotions but forgot that she was sick.  Not once in the whole film did she act like she was feeling bad, much less near death as she was supposed to be. She would yell at Dani and demand that he do things for her, but she'd never cough or act tired.  I was actually quite confused about this at the beginning, and thought that it would come out that she was faking her TB or something, but it didn't.

While I really enjoyed the first 30 minutes of this film, it goes down hill steadily from there.  The young leads couldn't act, and a lot of the movie was superfluous.  After sitting through this two hour movie I was expecting some sort of payoff at the end, but it never came.  Overall not at great work.

Audio:

The movie is presented with the original Castillian language track in both stereo and DD 5.1.  There are optional English subtitles, but not an English dub.  I viewed the movie with the 5.1 soundtrack, and the film sounds excellent.  The music by Antoine Duhamel comes through very dramatically, with the rears being used very effectively.  The audio was clear, and there wasn't any distortion or other audio defects.

Video:

The anamorphically enhanced widescreen (1.85:1) picture looks good.  The colors were soft, giving the film almost a dream-like feel that I'm sure the director was going for.  The image was sharp and clear, with only a little aliasing in the background to mar an otherwise fine picture.

Extras:

The only extra is a 45 minute making-of featurette.  This bonus item is more of a video diary, showing the filming in a chronological fashion, with out any narrative or much structure.  I wasn't that interested in it since I wasn't thrilled with the movie, but fans of the film will surely enjoy it.

Final Thoughts:

This film had a very strong start that really captured my interest, but it just couldn't hold it.  The film meanders a lot, with a story-within-the-story plot that is ultimately pointless.  While the acting by Fernando Fernán Gómez was excellent, he is the only reason to watch this movie.  The two juvenile leads are mediocre at best.   Director Fernando Trueba was trying to create something new and different, but he didn't succeed.  This movie is a rental at best.