Primos

♣♣♣♣♣/♣♣♣♣♣

Diego (Quim Gutiérrez) is dumped by his fiancé days before their wedding. His two cousins come to his rescue: womanizer Julián (Raúl Arévalo) and neurotic José Miguel (Adrián Lastra). They all end up back in the old town where they used to go for summer vacation as kids. There Diego meets his childhood sweetheart Martina (Inma Cuesta), while José Miguel bonds with her kid who is as delicate as he is in terms of health, and Julián tries to reconcile his childhood idol with his daughter.

I have not seen any of the Hangover movies but I imagine them to be like this. This one is a really enjoyable “guy flick” which highlights the bond between three cousins who have their own quirks and issues in life. Diego has dependency issues and easily confuses love with sex or companionship. Julián is the womanizer who develops feelings for the women he pays for a la Richard Gere in Pretty Woman. The wackiest cousin would be José Miguel due to his medications, which make him high-strung and weird most of the time. But it is their bond as cousins that serves as the glue that holds not just them, but the whole movie together.

I last saw Gutiérrez in Azuloscurocasinegro and I almost did not recognize him here because of the facial hair. Nonetheless it is nice to see him in an upbeat role as opposed to the very serious one in the other movie mentioned. He cries so effortlessly here but it does not turn into melodrama, but rather adds more comedy to the scenes. As for Arévalo I just saw him an hour prior to this one in Gordos and his role here is the exact opposite of his role there. I think he was also in Azuloscurocasinegro. The director of that film also directs this film. Reunion! Lastra would be the best addition to their trio. His crankiness here is just a joy to watch. What I find amazing though is that Antonio de la Torre is also here but I had to wait for the credits to roll to find out who he was. He plays the role of Bachi, the drunkard. And to think I just saw him an hour before in Gordos playing a colorful gay role. Talk about contrasts!

The story is simple and the plot is blah but you have to give credit to the director for keeping everything light, funny, and so enjoyable through his characters. Talk about enjoyable, that Backstreet Primos repeat concert brought the whole house down. The people in the cinema could not stop laughing. The film got a big round of applause after the screening. As I have already mentioned a thousand times, this movie is really enjoyable, and it was a good decision to see it in tandem with Gordos, another good comedy.

I really enjoyed this movie (for the nth time!) but somehow it has left me depressed for about half an hour because it made me suddenly miss my cousins. There are also three of us within the same age bracket, and then there are two more pairs, one older and the other younger than us. The girls are not even counted yet, but yeah, our bond was almost similar although our activities were mainly focused on childish things like game consoles and board games. Had things remained the same we could have had the same ending as those three primos in the movie. In fact, that is what I appreciate most about the story, the enduring bond among them which has not disappeared even when they already have their own lives. As the English translation of the title that the director chose would like to say: "Cousinhood" instead of merely just "Cousins".