gas31 This movie is very reminiscent of American sit-coms such as Friends, with only minimal character development and some halfway decent comedy, but then someone decided it would be a good idea to make it into a musical.Why, oh why?! Quite apart from the badly-choreographed, fetishised female dancing sequences, the actors can't sing! The songs seem to encroach on the plot rather than aid it, and the fact that the songs are often shot in a different location (with completely different lighting, mise-en-scene etc) from the preceding and following scenes makes the film as a whole seem disjointed.The time spent on the musical numbers would have been better used to provide a little more character development - after all, the film boasts an impressive cast, but sadly their talents are not exploited to their full potential.

tcw-4 I was frankly getting a little bored even of World Cinema until I happened upon this little gem. It's everything Dennis Potter's (r.i.p) Singing Detective could/should have been but wasn't.As you'll appreciate from that summary, it has acting and singing - but don't let that put you off - PLEASE don't let that put you off. I hate musicals myself but this is FANTASTIC. Witty, wry, sexy - the lot.If you don't learn anything from this movie, can I stay at your house?It is a wonderful film. Watch it. Buy it. Steal it if you have to.

Remster A Spanish friend recommended this movie, so we decided to watch it. And it was great! I really didn't expect the musical-elements, they reminded me of 8 Femmes, and most of them were really funny. Especially Ernesto Alterio's song (the first) and Guillermo Toledo's version of ¡Salta! by Seguridad Social made us laugh outloud! My favourite part was the theatre-scene, where Guillermo Toledo unwillingly has a part, with a paper melon prop on his head, exclaiming "¡Soy el hijo melón, soy el hijo melón!" Hilarious! Guillermo Toledo's part is great by the way, he made me laugh lots of times with the situations he got himself into.About halfway through the pace slows down a bit, making some scenes unnecessarily boring and maybe even redundant, but that's just a minor thing, all in all this movie is a must-see! There's one thing that Spanish and Dutch movies seem to have in common, most of the time they show nudity during the first ten minutes of the movie, so does El Otra Lado De La Cama. Not that I mind, though ;)9/10

paintbrush_2003 First of all, I love musicals, but I like to know beforehand that that's what I'm getting myself into. Ummm... we were enjoying this one as a fun romantic comedy when all of a sudden the male lead breaks out into song and a bunch of dancers appear out of no where!?! Not that it's bad, it's just that, well, NOTHING was mentioned about it on the packaging [again,do the people who write the blurbs actually watch the movies??]... The songs are in keeping with the overall tone of the film, and the dancing quite funny [hopefully intentionally so], but it's just that when you're not expecting them it can be one of those "Oh...my... we've rented a musical!?!?" It's a fun and funny movie, just be warned.