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Living It Up (La gran vida)
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // September 18, 2001
List Price: $29.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Martín (Carmelo Gomez) is desperately unhappy. His job as a bus driver seems to be a perfect metaphor for his life: going around in circles but never getting anywhere. Caught in his depression, he sees suicide as the only way out. But thanks to a Faustian bargain with a mysterious middleman (Tito Valverde), Martín is granted a week to "live it up" as a rich man before he kills himself. But when Martín meets the exotic Lola (Salma Hayek), his tidy plan starts to unravel.
Living It Up (original title: La gran vida) is a fun, fast-paced ride through the ups and downs of Martín's very out-of-the-ordinary week. The setup of the story is fantastic, with a mysterious feel much like The Spanish Prisoner, as the audience can see that Martín is getting involved with something that's out of his depth. The dark tone of the opening of the film works well in this respect: it's not at all clear (as it is in most "romantic comedies") that everything is going to work out well in the end, so I was hooked to find out what was going on and what would happen. The film's resolution doesn't manage to quite live up to the promise of the first part of the movie, but overall it's a very enjoyable movie.
Carmelo Gomez is outstanding as Martín, perfectly conveying the range of emotions of someone caught between despair and love of life. With body language as well as his expressive face and voice, Gomez carries off Martín's dramatic mood swings from gloom to manic exuberance while always keeping the audience sympathetic to Martín as a real person desperately trying to come to terms with his life. Between Gomez's acting and director Antonio Cuadri's directing, the comedy hits just the right note of humor and absurdity without ever going over the line into slapstick.
I can't give equal praise to Salma Hayek's performance. She seems to have been cast as Gomez's co-star on the strength of her name recognition to the U.S. and Mexican audience, but frankly Hayek is the weakest part of the film. Her acting is nothing more than ordinary, with her attempt at brash charm coming across merely as obnoxiousness, and the chemistry between her and Gomez just isn't there. With a different co-star – one who could give a more nuanced performance as Lola – Living It Up would have been a much better film.
Picture
The anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer of Living It Up makes for a good viewing experience, if not a perfect one. There's some noise in the image, and the contrast in some of the darker scenes isn't great. On the whole, it's slightly better than average.
Sound
I was impressed with the sound quality of this DVD. The Spanish Dolby 5.1 track is excellent, with surround sound being used to good effect throughout the movie. For instance, some nice audio touches with the surround include using the rear channels to convey the effect of a car stereo being played in the background while two of the characters are driving. Overall, it's a nice, clean soundtrack with clear dialogue and well-balanced music.
The English dubbed soundtrack is in fact presented in Dolby 5.1, even though the back of the box says that it's only available in Dolby 2.0. The quality of the dubbing isn't bad, but the voice actors don't have the same character to their voices as the original actors. I'd recommend choosing the Spanish track, with subtitles if necessary.
Extras
I was pleased to see that the subtitles are optional, so if you understand Spanish (as I do), you can enjoy the film without distractions.
The 20-minute making-of featurette offers an interesting look behind the scenes, with interviews with director Antonio Cuadri and actors Carmelo Gomez, Salma Hayek, and Tito Valverde. A filmography of Salma Hayek and trailers for the film are also included.
Final thoughts
All in all, I found Living It Up to be a worthwhile viewing experience, and one that I'd recommend. Though it doesn't quite manage to be all that it could be, it's fun, fresh, and distinctive, and worth picking up so that you can watch it more than once.
Living It Up (original title: La gran vida) is a fun, fast-paced ride through the ups and downs of Martín's very out-of-the-ordinary week. The setup of the story is fantastic, with a mysterious feel much like The Spanish Prisoner, as the audience can see that Martín is getting involved with something that's out of his depth. The dark tone of the opening of the film works well in this respect: it's not at all clear (as it is in most "romantic comedies") that everything is going to work out well in the end, so I was hooked to find out what was going on and what would happen. The film's resolution doesn't manage to quite live up to the promise of the first part of the movie, but overall it's a very enjoyable movie.
Carmelo Gomez is outstanding as Martín, perfectly conveying the range of emotions of someone caught between despair and love of life. With body language as well as his expressive face and voice, Gomez carries off Martín's dramatic mood swings from gloom to manic exuberance while always keeping the audience sympathetic to Martín as a real person desperately trying to come to terms with his life. Between Gomez's acting and director Antonio Cuadri's directing, the comedy hits just the right note of humor and absurdity without ever going over the line into slapstick.
I can't give equal praise to Salma Hayek's performance. She seems to have been cast as Gomez's co-star on the strength of her name recognition to the U.S. and Mexican audience, but frankly Hayek is the weakest part of the film. Her acting is nothing more than ordinary, with her attempt at brash charm coming across merely as obnoxiousness, and the chemistry between her and Gomez just isn't there. With a different co-star – one who could give a more nuanced performance as Lola – Living It Up would have been a much better film.
Picture
The anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer of Living It Up makes for a good viewing experience, if not a perfect one. There's some noise in the image, and the contrast in some of the darker scenes isn't great. On the whole, it's slightly better than average.
Sound
I was impressed with the sound quality of this DVD. The Spanish Dolby 5.1 track is excellent, with surround sound being used to good effect throughout the movie. For instance, some nice audio touches with the surround include using the rear channels to convey the effect of a car stereo being played in the background while two of the characters are driving. Overall, it's a nice, clean soundtrack with clear dialogue and well-balanced music.
The English dubbed soundtrack is in fact presented in Dolby 5.1, even though the back of the box says that it's only available in Dolby 2.0. The quality of the dubbing isn't bad, but the voice actors don't have the same character to their voices as the original actors. I'd recommend choosing the Spanish track, with subtitles if necessary.
Extras
I was pleased to see that the subtitles are optional, so if you understand Spanish (as I do), you can enjoy the film without distractions.
The 20-minute making-of featurette offers an interesting look behind the scenes, with interviews with director Antonio Cuadri and actors Carmelo Gomez, Salma Hayek, and Tito Valverde. A filmography of Salma Hayek and trailers for the film are also included.
Final thoughts
All in all, I found Living It Up to be a worthwhile viewing experience, and one that I'd recommend. Though it doesn't quite manage to be all that it could be, it's fun, fresh, and distinctive, and worth picking up so that you can watch it more than once.
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