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FILMS / REVIEWS

Review: I Can Quit Whenever I Want

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- Mod Producciones attempt to replicate the box office success of the Italian film I Can Quit Whenever I Want with a Spanish remake directed by Carlos Therón

Review: I Can Quit Whenever I Want
Carlos Santos, David Verdaguer and Ernesto Sevilla in I Can Quit Whenever I Want

Under the command of Fernando Bovaira, who has produced films on behalf of Alejandro Amenábar (Agora [+see also:
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, The Others) and Mexican director, Alejandro González Iñárritu (Biutiful [+see also:
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), Mod Producciones has rather cleverly achieved certain levels of success which have subsequently contributed towards the production of riskier (or costlier) artistic propositions. In association with Telecinco Cinema, the team are now looking to pull off a similar coup with I Can Quit Whenever I Want [+see also:
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, another film which promises raucous belly laughs and unadulterated fun. Directed by Carlos Therón (who has already put his name to comedies such as Fuga de cerebros 2 [+see also:
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and It’s For Your Own Good [+see also:
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), the film is a Spanish version of the Italian blockbuster of the same name, I Can Quit Whenever I Want [+see also:
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interview: Sydney Sibilia
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]
.

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Indeed, Italy does seem to be establishing itself as something of a film “laboratory” whose formulae can be successfully transposed on the other side of the Mediterranean coast: Álex de la Iglesia earned far higher sums with his Perfect Strangers [+see also:
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remake (20.7 million euros) than he did with his more personal, auteur films. Only time will tell whether I Can Quit Whenever I Want can obtain similar box office results, and whether it will result in a series of films, as happened with the original version on the Italian peninsula where three film sequels have already been released.

Scriptwriters Cristóbal Garrido and Adolfo Valor were responsible for taking the original transalpine version of the film and adapting it to the Hispanic world, cutting down the number or changing the sex of central characters here and there. But the basic premise is the same: a handful of college professors find their way out of financial insecurity by dealing synthetic drugs to young adults. In this respect, I Can Quit Whenever I Want could be said to be a distant cousin of Breaking Bad, the American series to which the film pays tribute at various points in the script. It’s a black comedy, both untamed and uncomplicated, which makes light of the financial crisis and the loss of prestige that university titles usually afford in the workplace, but which also ensures that viewers who don’t have quite so many artistic pretensions are having just as much fun as the actors.

Featuring among the latter are David Verdaguer (the favoured actor of Carlos Marqués-Marcet who is making a happy return to comedy – and who provides us with a delightfully delusional Dead Poets Society moment – following a brief incursion into genre cinema with No culpes al karma de lo que te pasa por gilipollas [+see also:
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), Ernesto Sevilla (one of the best Spanish comics around, who made us roar with laughter in Campamento Flipy [+see also:
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) and Carlos Santos, which is surprising given the diametrically opposed role he previously played in political thriller Smoke and Mirrors [+see also:
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interview: Alberto Rodríguez
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]
, directed by Alberto Rodríguez (worth a mention at this point is his memorable and psychotropic musical number singing and dancing the Eighties hit Sarà perché ti amo by Italian pop group Ricchi e Poveri).

By their side at this acid-fuelled party are Cristina Castaño (who previously appeared in the TV series Cuerpo de élite and in comedies such as Bajo el mismo techo [+see also:
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), Miren Ibarguren (Bomb Scared [+see also:
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) and finally Ernesto Alterio in an ambiguous, manipulative role. The combination of their performances, together with a musical score which is commensurate with the high experienced by the characters, photography that’s steeped in stratospheric colours - much along the lines of The Hangover - and the film’s frenetic editing all result in a cartoon of sorts, which is full of excesses; an inconsistent, guilty pleasure.

Lo dejo cuando quiera is produced by Mod Producciones and Telecinco Cinema, with the support of Movistar Plus+ and Mediaset España. International sales are managed by Filmax while Sony Pictures Entertainment Iberia are set to distribute the film in Spanish cinemas from 12 April.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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