Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Put two actors who dislike each other in a film and you might have a disaster on your hands, but this is what Lola deliberately decides to do when given limitless money to make a movie. Starring "Penélope Cruz as Lola, a cutting-edge (read: screamingly pretentious) film director who's hired by an aging millionaire (José Luis Gómez) anxious to leave something behind as a legacy. (It's that or a bridge.) Given a hit novel to adapt – about two brothers locked in mutual hatred – and an unlimited budget, she casts Ívan (Oscar Martinez), the most respected theater actor of his generation, and Félix (Antonio Banderas), a movie star and sex symbol of the wattage of, well, Antonio Banderas" – Ty Burr’s Watch List.

'Official Competition' is, then a film about making a film which gives all three actors the chance to play comedy for a change, which they do to great reviews – "its lead performers Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, and Oscar Martínez inhabit their fully-realized characters with such wit that it's a treat just to watch them exist" – Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com. We think you will enjoy the treat too.