También la lluvia (Even the Rain) Movie Review: Self Importance Masquerading as Greatness

Juan Carlos Aduviri as Daniel playing Hatuey. The specter of Christianity is approaching from behind.

*As a matter of full disclosure I should point out that I saw this film in the original Spanish without subtitles. While my Spanish is good enough to get the majority of the dialogue, there were certainly subtleties of character that were lost on me, as well as at least one key scene of dialogue between the two principals, Sebastián and Costa. I have some suspicions about certain character elements, but as I can’t be certain I will avoid making reference to anything unless I feel confident I understood it all.

También la lluvia (Even the Rain), Spain's entry this year to the AMPAS for the Foreign Language Film Oscar, starts out so well, coming close to brilliance in the way it toys with the concept of life imitating art imitating life, but then degrades itself in the third act by falling in love with its own self-importance and tossing in a melodramatic plot turn designed solely to bring about a contrived denouement. It made me so angry because the combination of Paul Laverty’s screenplay and Icíar Bollaín’s direction worked so well together until a particular moment (more on that later) when they completely lost my respect.