Come As You Are (2011)

Too much of everything

Nice effects though.

A Masterpiece!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

HASTA LA VISTA's subject-matter is a familiar one: three teenagers decide to go to Spain to lose their virginity and hire a mini-bus to do so. When they eventually get there, they find the experience not quite what they anticipated. The major difference between Geoffrey Enthoven's film and other examples of the genre is that the three protagonists (Robrecht Vanden Thoren, Tom Audenaert, and Kimke Desart) and all disabled: one of them is paralyzed from the neck downwards and confined to a wheelchair; another is blind; while the third suffers from terminal cancer and is also confined to a wheelchair.The film is as much about how the protagonists negotiate their disabilities as the road-trip itself. All of them are heavily dependent on their parents; but for this road-trip only, they decide to branch out on their own. They engage the services of a taciturn bus-driver-cum-nurse (Isabelle de Hertogh) who appears to resent their presence, even while looking after them. As the trip unfolds, however, so she loosens up; and eventually becomes their protector, even though she has a shady past.The film has some sentimental, not to say implausible elements; given the parents' concern for their siblings' welfare, it seems highly unlikely that they would permit the ambitious road-trip to go ahead, especially when they eventually catch up with their offspring at an anonymous gray concrete hotel. The ending is also a little predictable, as one of the three protagonists, after having achieved his dream of losing his virginity, passes away, DEATH IN VENICE- style in his wheelchair by the sea. Nonetheless there are some highly humorous moments along the way, no more so than when the three friends try to manage for themselves in a hotel room without the nurse's help, and end up spending an uncomfortable night together.HASTA LA VISTA contains some remarkable performances by the protagonists, who refuse to let their disabilities get them down; like most teenagers, they are alternately irritating, attractive yet lovable. When they eventually get to the specially appointed brothel, catering especially for disabled clients, their reactions are definitely worth remembering.

"Come as You Are" is an all too rare example of a film featuring physical disability that actually succeeds. Let's face it. Which of us would normally expect to be entertained by the spectacle of three young men, a paraplegic, one with hardly any vision and one semi-paralysed as a result of terminal cancer, struggling to go on a holiday sex adventure? I have to admit that on reading the blurb in the Radio Times I thought this could not possibly work. It sounded like some sort of "Inbetweeners" effort in the worst possible taste. However as it was taking up time in a BBC World Cinema slot I felt duty bound to give it a "ten minute" test particularly as too little attention is given to foreign movies by our TV companies. That the film grabbed immediately and survived those initial scenes I can only attribute to the likability of its characters. Admittedly Philip the paraplegic, the mouthy one of the three, needed getting used to, but his companions, Lars and Jozef, had those endearing features that make for good company on a long journey. But even Philip was to reveal a more sympathetic side towards the end. I suppose in a way it worked because it was a comedy that skilfully sidestepped the mawkish, with each scene however embarrassingly uncomfortable for the characters at the time - the hotel bedroom scene where a key is mislaid or the misadventure where Jozef accidentally rolls down an embankment into a lake - tending to come right so that the overall feel-good factor was never quite dissipated. Claude, the lads' overweight female chauffeur holds the whole thing together beautifully. She develops a bond with her charges as we do with both them and her. In the end their sexual fulfilment is what matters all round. Admittedly the scene where death finally catches up with Lars is terribly sad but somehow it speaks for the honesty of a film that faces up to the fact that life is a balancing act of laughter and tears for most of us.

While Dutch/Belgian movies often try to replicate the big budget action (or suspense) from US cinema, they would be much better off trying to master the art of creating something charming and heartfelt within the budget range that is there. Like this film! No fancy effects or smoky rooms with people staring in the distance contemplating the state of the world, but actual people with actual needs and a little challenge at that.Because what do you do when you're a young horny bloke, and paralysed? Or blind? Or dying? It's simple questions like this that probably arise a lot more in regular life than we (I) might think. Luckily, the Spanish have a solution: a bordello for just that sort of need. On with the road trip!

It was like the British movie 'Third Star' where they go in search of peace but in this movie it is totally opposite. It centers around three friends Joseph, Phillip and Lars who are in the twenties. Joseph is a visually impaired, Phillip is paralyzed and Lars got a tumour. They are all common in something, like, they are still virgins. They are looking for their first sexual experience, so they plan all the way to tour Spain where the destiny for their desire is waiting for them. But what stand against them are their parents and of course the disease. How they overcome everything and reach their goal is what the rest of the movie gonna tell to us.If you read the synopsis of the movie you come to know that the concept was not the first time you have heard. It is the common theme in Americans teen movies like 'Sex Drive' and 'The Inbetweeners'. But the thing was the main three characters were disabled and that makes the movie special. Because of the softness of the characters, the audience will easily approve the intense of storyline and saying 'let them have what they want'. Yeah, that makes I too want to be like one of them then I can be approved to have anything I want, hahaha.I think the movie was good. It was a fun adventure simultaneously light emotional tale. All these three guys wanted was to have the fun like the normal people, before it become too late for them. There was also a fat woman in the story, called Claude and she was the van driver who takes them to the tour. Her role was obvious and supported well to the main characters. She was kinda reminded me Melissa McCarthy.It was one of the best road movie. I thought I could see some beautiful places of Europe but the director had the different ideas. He exposed lots of character emotions than the places around them but still the beauty of Europe vastly visible. The tale leaves nothing for us to guess the end, as expected it ends in a usual style. So if you thought it would be a tearjerker's movie, it is not. The movie had many lines about adult stuffs, that makes it suitable for them only. It is one of the heartwarming comedy about disabled people and their desires like many movies we had seen.8.5/10