Directed by: Álvaro Díaz Lorenzo
Produced by: Álvaro Díaz Lorenzo
Starring: Victoria Abril, María León, Silvia Alonzo
It’s time for the curtains to open on the Australian premiere of Wishlist: La Lista De Los Deseos, the off the wall comedy headlining the 2021 Spanish Film Festival.
When Eva (María León), a twenty something vet, and Carmen (Victoria Abril), a woman in her early middle age, develop a strong bond during a series of chemotherapy sessions, it lays the groundwork for a madcap road trip heading south from Seville to Morocco via Cadiz while the women await the results of their treatment. Joining them is Eva’s best friend Mar (Silvia Alonzo), a teacher nursing a broken heart and feeling utterly disillusioned by love following the breakup of a long term relationship.
In the opening scene, the trio have managed to land themselves behind bars and the police are at a loss as to how to handle them. It’s the culmination of the women’s time away. ‘A week to fit an entire life into,’ with each ticking off, ‘The three things they always wished they could do and couldn’t,’ from their communal chalkboard. Although, for all three to be locked up together, it did require some ingenuity and a nicely timed dropping of undies. The two strapping officers in charge of the arrest thought they had things under control. They had no idea.
In its advance billing, Wishlist has been frequently compared with the 1990’s hit movie, Thelma and Louise and, while both films feature women resolutely staring down their fate, in some ways, this film is more a mirror image of the earlier one. Thelma and Louise are two friends taking some time away to party as they set out on a fishing trip together. What begins as a light hearted excursion soon descends into darkness as the pair find themselves trapped in the grimy underbelly of small town America.
On the other hand, the women in Wishlist, already facing a dark reality, decide to retaliate. Each feels that they have nothing to lose, so there is absolutely no filter on their behaviour. And that means mayhem. Do not be the one to cross these wayward women and definitely do not steal their parking spot if they happen to be holding a container of chocolate milk. Unless a decent splash of chocolate is the one thing that has missing from your attire. That was Mar’s gleeful contribution to the ‘Me Too!’ movement.
For me, Wishlist is more akin to Pedro Almodovar’s runaway success of the early 90s, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with its fast pace and delightfully absurd humour. While this film at its core takes on a tough subject and doesn’t underplay the experience, it handles it with warmth and lashings of misbehaviour.
By the time the end credits were rolling the audience were applauding and I had the feeling that the last 103 minutes of my time was very well spent. Not in spite of the subject matter, but because of the sensitive but utterly mischievous way it had been presented.