Lorna Irvine reviews an 'utterly charming' film.
David Trueba's film really shouldn't work, being as ephemeral and fine as a dandelion in a summer breeze, but it is so warm and full of life that it is hard to resist.
It is the mid-sixties in small-town Spain. The constant threat of impending nuclear war is beamed out on television sets everywhere. Radio broadcasts only play sacred songs. Teenage rebellion is on standby, where there are only a few long haired boys getting severe beatings for their follicular choices.
Antonio (the wonderful Javier Camara, a regular in Pedro Almodovar's movies) is an idealistic (and bald!) schoolteacher, completely eccentric and at odds with the stultifying school system. Instead of conventional English lessons, he teaches his young students Beatles lyrics and the philosophies and concepts (self-determinism, karma, peaceful protest, etc) behind them. Indeed, even this film's title is a line from the glorious Beatles song written in Spain: Strawberry Fields Forever.
When he decides on a whim, like most of his decisions, to journey in his battered old jalopy to a set where John Lennon is doing the film shoot for How I Won The War, he picks up two vulnerable youths en route- pregnant, sarcastic convent girl Belen (Natalia de Molina) and gawky runaway schoolkid Juanjo (Francesc Colomer).
High-jinx ensue, but not quite in the way they should. This road movie's map has been scribbled on a little. Sure, the teenagers fall in love. Of course, Antonio gets to meet John Lennon. But it's more the odd detours that count in this utterly charming—and quite touching in its own small way—film.
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