'I Love You, Stupid' Review: Netflix's Spanish rom-com is outdated but enjoyable if you don't get offended easily
Spoilers for 'I Love You, Stupid' / 'Te Quiero, Imbécil'
Valentine's Day was three months ago and a lot has happened since then, but Netflix has decided to lighten our lives a little bit by offerings its viewers a Spanish rom-com that stars Quim Gutiérrez and Natalia Tena. You may remember Tena from her roles in the 'Harry Potter' franchise (as Nymphadora Tonks) and 'Game of Thrones' (as Osha).
In the Spanish romantic comedy, 'I Love You, Stupid', Tena plays your average manic pixie dream girl — even though the age of the manic pixie dream girl is long over. She is eccentric, is not afraid to sing in public or make orgasmic sounds (a la Meg Ryan in 'When Harry Met Sally'), and has pink hair. But the movie is not about Raquel, Tena's character — instead, it follows the life of Marcos, played by Gutiérrez whose life is turned upside down when his girlfriend, Ana (Alba Ribas) breaks up with him during dinner after she rejected his marriage proposal and within 48 hours, he is also fired from his job.
Nursing a broken heart, Marcos moves into his parents' house and like a lot of empty nesters, his parents had turned his room partly into a storage room. Marcos's friend, Diego (Alfonso Bassave) is your average, kind-of-sleazy, main character's best friend. Predictably, Diego tells Marcos that he needs to get Ana out of his system and that dating apps are the way to do it. However, Marcos gets Diego to get him a job at the latter's company leading Marcos to take the first steps to become the sports journalist he always wanted to be.
However, Marcos lacks Diego's confidence — and his looks. Marcos sports nerdy glasses, unkempt hair and is not fit. He dresses like a teenage boy, wearing ill-fitting t-shirts and jeans. And so, Marcos' initial attempts at finding love fail.
This is when he discovers Sebastian Vennet (Ernesto Alterio), an online Argentinian self-help guru. Marcos begins to follow Sebastian's advice from the influencer's videos and starts to work out and eat better. He also moves out of his parents' house into a sleek apartment and even starts to dress stylishly. This is where things start to change for Marcos. Noticing his new style, his boss invites him to her party where he reconnects with Ana and begins sleeping with her. He also starts to perform better at work and gets promoted as well as a pay raise.
In the midst of all this, before his transformation, Marcos reconnects with Raquel, an old school friend who shared the same taste in music as him, specifically, The Proclaimers' 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)'. But Marcos and Raquel are just friends and they laugh about Marcos' attempts at getting over Ana. From there, it's the same old story. Marcos realizes that Ana is getting married to someone else and that she has been using him. Raquel realizes she has feelings for Marcos and vice versa but bad timing leads Raquel to stop seeing Marcos, and so on.
Of course, eventually, Marcos goes after what he wants and takes a boombox to Raquel's storefront (a la John Cusack in 'Say Anything') and starts dancing to The Proclaimers' 'I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)'. Raquel is still not impressed and for some reason, Marcos strips naked (a completely uncomfortable scene in the era of the #MeToo movement) despite passers-by watching them. But this seems to be enough for Raquel who leaps on to him and kisses him.
If you loved the romantic comedies of the 90s and the early 2000s, you might find 'I Love You, Stupid' amusing. Even so, the movie feels quite outdated and lacks the charm of the average Nancy Meyers or John Hughes movie. Moreover, there are instances when the movie gets a little homophobic, a little misogynistic, a little sexist, and a little racist — and in 2020, even though we may be fighting a plague again, these kinds of jokes are inexcusable. 'I Love You, Stupid' is now streaming on Netflix.