La vita è facile ad occhi chiusi

"Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed" (2013 release from Spain) brings the story of Antonio, a thirty-something English teacher. The time is 1066 and the place is Spain. Antonio is Beatles-obsessed, and as the movie opens we see him using the lyrics of "Help" to teach his class. When Antonio finds out that John Lennon is in southern Spain (to film "How I Won the War"), Antonio decides to drive down, determined to meet Lennon. Along the way, Antonio picks up two teenage runaways: first there is Belén, whom we later learn escaped from a nuns' caretaker place to go back to her mom in Malaga. A bit later there is Juango, a 16 yr. old who tired of his father's dictatorial antics. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see it for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from well-known Spanish writer-director David Trueba (he also brought us "Madrid, 1987"). Here, Trueba mixes facts (Lennon was indeed in Almeria, Spain then, and he did write the basis for "Strawberry Fields Forever" at that time) and fiction (the three main characters) to bring us a wonderful little film about the hopes and dreams of these three people who come to depend on each other more than they realize, and along the way find a renewed lease on life. The movie does a great job of establishing the insecurities and flaws of the main characters, without ever going overboard or falling into sentimentalism.Natalia de Molina (remarkably similar in appearance to Dakota Johnson) is sensational as Belén You'll enjoy the movie even more if you are a Beatles fan (is there anyone who doesn't like the Beatles?). At one point, Antonio laments the fact that the Beatles albums do not contain the lyrics to the songs. "John, give us a break!", he sighs, ha! Also, I don't know this for a fact, but I believe that the demo version that we hear in the movie of "Strawberry Fields Forever" is the same one that we hear (partially) on the Beatles Anthology 2 compilation0.

I recently stumbled upon this movie while browsing the foreign film section at my local library. So glad that I picked this up! As the movie approached its conclusion, I so wished that it could've played just a little longer, as I was not ready to say goodbye to these three endearing characters. If you are in the mood for a top notch foreign movie, you cannot go wrong with this. "Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!