Lovely Loneliness

Another at the Spanish 'La Mirada' film festival, and a nice one. The description in the program made it sound like Amelie in Buenos Aires, and that turned out to be not far from the mark, though Lovely Loneliness is less whimsical and has more of an air of reality to it; indeed, in its pacing and informally episodic structure, not to mention the generally drab and everyday nature of the settings, the film would veer close to the social realist/documentary school of film-making that I so dislike were it not for its mildly offbeat tone, and particularly the quirkiness of its protagonist, the delightfully-named Soledad. I actually felt that she was quite a realistic female character, if perhaps a touch exaggerated - I saw elements of NV (with whom I was watching it), M and TV in particular in her, which has had some effect on how I would respond to those elements when next they're apparent in women I actually know, I suspect.

It's a bit difficult to essay a plot synopsis...it would go something like: girl breaks up with boy, has blocked toilet. Girl meets another boy, has awkward courtship with boy, boy fixes blocked toilet. Girl is a hypochondriac who goes to hospital at night a lot, gets locked out of her apartment at one point. Boy is in process of moving house. Things seem to go well with girl and new boy. (Also, mother of girl gets breast enhancement surgery, for no apparent reason related to anything else.) But it is pretty charming in a low-key way.