SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL: Eliseo (Javier Camara) is unlucky in love and in life. He’s forty, still lives with his mother on a farm in a small village in pretty Aragon and he’s a more than a little bitter about his lot in life. His fortunes seem dependent on the fact that the world finds him, well, really, really unattractive. In the movie’s cringe 'n’ laugh opening scene, a blind date finds him so unappealing she practically runs away. Later, his friends suggest that he might have better luck with a 'rebound’. So, when an old flame’s husband dies Eliseo hits on her... but his timing isn’t good; he makes his moves at the funeral!
Broad and obnoxious, Nacho Garcia Velilla’s follow-up to his debut hometown hit Chef’s Special is kind of fun; but then, it’s rather nasty humour may well be an acquired taste. By nasty I simply mean that a lot of its comedy evolves out of Eliseo being set up to take a fall; the laughs come in watching him try to back out of one humiliating episode after another.
About half way through the movie some hope arises for Eliseo and with it, a major shift in tone. He falls hard for his brother’s estranged wife Nati (Carmen Machi), who has a certain wild charm but suffers from foot-in-mouth disease. Embarrassed about the situation, the pair elects to keep their liaison quiet, but this leads to more confusion, mixed messages and misunderstandings. Much face pulling, running about and crazed behaviour follows.
Apparently Velilla wanted his new film to be a sort of homage to the Spanish comedies of the '60s, which could explain the film’s production design which is, to say the least, retro in feel, from the costumes, props and vehicles (and complete absence of 21st century mod cons) right down to the eye scolding colour which is so loud it screams.
Still, the film has its share of earthy weirdness that puts an edge on some of the film’s more conventional comedy. There’s one scene set out in a paddock in broad daylight which is slapstick in style but also strangely moving. Eliseo is attempting to assist a cow while it is calving; with his hands plunged deep inside the animal Eliseo confronts Nati over some issue in their relationship. As the recriminations fly, the new born calf flops to the ground, safe and happy. It’s the juxtaposition between Eliseo’s smart efficiency as a farmer and his complete uselessness as a communicator that makes that scene both funny and poignant.
Eliseo may be, in essence, a classic nerd. With his hideous comb-over and coke bottle glasses he’s a movie cliché of ugly. But Velilla rips off Eliseo’s mask. We find as the film unwinds that what makes him so unattractive is his own obsessive self-regard. The film is finally about how Eliseo learns to give without needing something in return. It’s a corny moral, but here it’s deeply affecting mostly because the film’s own tone and feel shifts and bends in conjunction with its hero’s journey. To Hell with the Ugly starts off as a cartoon, but by its end there’s a depth of feeling that’s really rather sweet. Velilla really seems to like his cast of nerds and try-hards and that feels good.
Incidentally, the title comes from a 1965 Spanish pop hit and it’s nicely integrated into the plot, too; Eliseo is a fan of '60s music kitsch.
