El dios de madera

Knew little or anything about the movie before I put it on. But I enjoyed it.

To illegal refugees, Yao and Rachid. Comes to Spain together but are separated. A long time afterwards they met again. Rachid is now working illegally working as a hairdresser at a beauty salon, together with gay Robert which is infatuated with him.

Yao has coincidentally met Rober's widowed mother who runs a shop, and when they meet again together Rober's there's an affair lurking.

The film doesn't have a deep story, but it's human and beautifully told, and well played.

For those who doesn't know him, Vicente Molina Foix is terrible, talentless writer that got some internet infamy due to a completely biased, snobbish and poorly written "article" bashing the animation and comics, talking about how those art forms are "inferior" to the literature and live-action cinema.

Of course, since Mr. Molina Foix knows a lot about the "superior" forms of art, I was expecting to be this movie to be, incredibly good, or at least, somewhat interesting. Well, It wasn't. "El dios de madera" is a puerile, amateurish mishmash of many clichés previously seen in many other movies, being stale and uninspired, dealing with "serious" and "important" themes in the most shallow and bland way that anybody could imagine.

As you might guess, on top of everything else this makes "El dios de madera" unspeakably boring and forgettable.

"El dios de madera" it's just another vanity project that merely uses the problems of the modern world in a manipulative, trite way. Just like movies as "Crash", or "21 Grams","Slumdog Millonaire" or "Babel". But at least, I can recognize some elements of greatness, and artistic vision on those works. There is nothing of that in this movie.

0/10

Don't know why one reviewer was so determined to bash this film. While it may not be a great film, it's a sweet and tender story that tackles interlacing themes: illegal migrants in Spain; a May-September affair; a mother-son relationship, and unrequited love, with both gay and heterosexual desire given equal billing. The lead actress Marisa Paredes is one Spanish cinema's finest and is always worth watching. (Viewers might recognize her from Almodóvar film especially.) The rest of the cast is comprised of attractive, less experienced actors who manage credible, sympathetic performances. What's more the film is shot on location in beautiful Valencia. In sum, there's enough to this film to make it quietly enjoyable if not revelatory. Worth a try.