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After seeing a bunch of either boring or pretentious movies,
it was really nice to watch Gordos,
a new production of the Spanish director Daniel Sanchez Arevalo, who’s
become famous thanks to his great previous movie
Azul Oscuro Casi Negro (Dark
Blue, Almost Black, 2006).
Gordos is a story of a small
therapist group which gathers four people who suffer from obesity.
Nevertheless, as we realize while the movie goes on, the obesity isn’t the
only problem that bothers them. Actually, the lack of self acceptation and
also the frustration that hunts them have only a little to do with their
seize.
As Sanchez Arevalo demonstrated in
Azul Oscuro Casi Negro, he’s not afraid of showing the truth in his
movies, of fighting with prejudices and laughing at our so called morality
or conventions we are slaves to. That’s why one may sometimes get
embarrassed while watching Gorodos. The contemporary television not used to
present fat, let’s not avoid this word, people at all, not even mentioning
them making or falling in love. Sanchez Arevalo breaks this scheme from the
very first scenes where we can see the main characters being (or getting)
naked and at the same time, though so imperfect, so familiar.
Personally, what I find the most interesting in
Gordos is the story of the
therapist and the exposure of his real attitude towards obesity. Although
he’s in charge of the group in which he is there to help these people to
overcome the shame of their own bodies, their habit of overeating etc., in
fact he doesn’t accept them at all. We get to know this sad true when we
notice how he’s treating his pregnant wife, who gains on weight almost every
single day. Even though she remains as attractive as she used to be before
pregnancy, somehow her new, bigger appearance repulses him a lot. So, the
therapist turns into one of his patients since although he doesn’t suffer
from obesity himself, this problem manages to spoil the happiness of his
family.
Gordos offers us many moments
of unforced humor; during the screening there were numerous bursts of
laughing. It’s such a pleasure to watch a movie that easily manages to make
you laugh since there are too few intelligent comedies nowadays. Also, in
his movies Sanchez Alevaro always focuses on what’s really important, on
what makes our existence tough and what concerns all of us, even though
sometimes it’s hard for us to admit it. That’s why this comedy-drama talks
about many various issues and I’m sure that you will find yourself and some
of your problems in one of the characters like I have.
09:09:2009
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