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The Good Voice review
:. Director: Antonio Cuadri
:. Starring: José Luis Gómez
:. Running Time: 1:40
:. Year: 2006
:. Country: Spain
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Had I listened to the little voice in my head I would have left the theater in the middle of this muddy melodrama from Spain. But I stayed and regretted almost every minute of The Good Voice.
Rosa (the stunning Pilar Velazguez) and crabby cab driver Pepe (Jose Luis Gomez) look as if they've hated every moment they've lived together. They're surprised by the appearance of an old family friend (Klara Badiola) with a secret to tell. She's Rosa's best friend and she shares that her son was born out of a fling with Rosa's husband 27 years ago. Instead of getting angry, Rosa is happy since she couldn't have kids of her own. Enter the son (Biel Duran), who is gay and has just found out he has AIDS. And he lives in the same town! Enter his ex-boyfriend, who doesn't want to leave him, even though he feels rejected. Enter the father, who won't accept a gay son and wishes his wife would be angry with him so that he could feel guilty.
Enter a thousand clichés from every awful soap opera or bad telenovela and you will find yourself in the middle of La Buena Voz, a film that overexerts itself trying to be a hip meditation on life in the 21st century. What's interesting is that this Almodovarian take absolutely does not work when you take away everything else that makes Almodovar's films fascinating. The one and only saving grace to this film is the cinematography, which is excellent (thanks to Gaizka Bourgeaud), and the opportunity to see Bilbao, where the film was shot.
It's surprising, and unfortunate, that the festival would even bother with something so obviously made for TV.
Anji Milanovic
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
New Film Reviews since 2012
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