Movies: Políticamente incorrectos (2024) by Arantxa Echevarría: The Political Love Affair
- dailyentertainment95
- 1 hour ago
- 7 min read
Movie Summary: Opposites Attract in a War of Ideology
Title: Left, Right, and the Disaster of Falling in Love
Summary of Content: The film is a Spanish political romantic comedy centered on Laura Vázquez (left-wing, aspiring to lead the "Nueva Izquierda") and Pablo Merino (right-wing, a young conservative from "España Liberal"). Both are fiercely loyal to their parties' campaigns to win the upcoming elections. After a disastrous inauguration event leaves them stranded together, they are forced to confront their mutual attraction, despite their ideological differences. Their subsequent secret meetings cause chaos and scandals for their manipulative political leaders, forcing the couple to choose between political ambition and their mutual feelings.
Movie Trend: Political Romantic Comedy (Rom-Com) and Satirical Spanish Cinema. It follows the trend of high-concept, culturally specific Spanish comedies that use humor, satire, and romance to dissect the contemporary, highly polarized political landscape.
Social Trend: Political Polarization and the Search for Common Ground. It directly addresses the vital social trend of political polarization in Western democracies, using the classic "opposites attract" trope to suggest the possibility of human connection and moderate common ground, even across rigid ideological divides.
Director Info: Directed by Arantxa Echevarría and written by Olatz Arroyo. Echevarría is a recognized voice in Spanish cinema, known for both drama (Carmen & Lola) and comedy.
Major Awards: The film has secured a Gross Worldwide Box Office of over $1.1 million, demonstrating significant commercial success and audience engagement in the Spanish market for its topical humor.
Why it is Trending: Polarized Politics Meets Romantic Comedy
Políticamente incorrectos is trending due to its timely and commercially successful fusion of sharp political satire and lighthearted romance, offering escapism layered with relevant commentary.
Timely Satire: The film resonates deeply by satirizing the current climate of shallow and fake political campaigns and the performative nature of ideological conflicts, which is highly relevant in Spain and globally.
Genre Clash: The core premise—pitting a political war against a compelling romantic attraction—creates built-in high stakes and guaranteed entertainment value, attracting both comedy and drama fans.
Commercial Success: The strong worldwide gross confirms its wide appeal in the Spanish-speaking market, driven by effective promotion and the relatability of its politically polarized characters.
Audience Polarization: Like the politics it satirizes, the film itself is polarized (user reviews range from 1/10 to 10/10), which guarantees strong water-cooler discussion and visibility.
Why to Watch This Movie: Sharp Satire and Lovable Characters
The film is essential viewing for its witty, necessary satire of modern campaigning and the lovable chemistry of its leads.
Witty Political Critique: The satire is "amazingly written," successfully laughing at "politicians of all colours" and showing how shallow and fake modern political campaigns have become.
Engaging Leads: The lead actress, Adriana Torrebejano, is praised for being "sensitive as funny as dramatic," delivering a performance that makes the ideologically opposed characters feel human and sympathetic.
Message of Unity: The core message that "people from opposite sides are not so different" and can find love is a necessary and hopeful counterpoint to the highly polarized political climate, resonating with viewers seeking unity.
Fast-Paced Comedy: The plot relies on the escalating chaos caused by the couple's secret meetings, which result in "one scandal after another," ensuring a dynamic and funny pace.
Where to watch: https://www.justwatch.com/it/film/politicamente-incorrectos (Italy), https://www.justwatch.com/es/pelicula/politicamente-incorrectos (Spain)
Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28272350/
What Trend is Followed?: The Spanish Political Satire Rom-Com
The movie follows the established Spanish trend of the Political Satire Romantic Comedy. This trend utilizes light, character-driven comedy to dissect national political institutions, often employing high-profile actors and current affairs to achieve broad commercial appeal and generate conversation.
Ideological Opposites: The core trope of the genre is the "enemies-to-lovers" dynamic, where the political divide serves as the ultimate barrier to romance, maximizing dramatic and comedic tension.
Critique of Performance: The film engages the trend of critiquing the shallowness of political campaigns, exposing the leaders and their teams as fake, manipulative, or out of touch with reality.
Commercial Appeal: The genre is highly commercial in the Spanish market, proven by the film's box office success, indicating a demand for topical humor about their own government and media.
Movie Plot: The Catastrophic Campaign Romance
The plot tracks the chaotic evolution of the relationship between Laura and Pablo as it derails their political careers:
The Rivalry: Laura Vázquez (Nueva Izquierda) and Pablo Merino (España Liberal) are aspiring politicians seeking to advance their respective parties' chances in the upcoming elections.
The Accident: They meet during a "disastrous inauguration" of a dam and are accidentally left alone, forced to survive in the forest, during which they feel their mutual attraction.
Escalating Promotions: After being rescued, Laura is surprisingly promoted to be the left-wing leader's number two, forcing the right-wing leader to promote Pablo to match her, placing them on a collision course as rival figureheads.
Scandalous Meetings: Despite their professional roles, they continue meeting in secret. Each encounter leads to an unplanned public interaction or private lapse that causes an ever-increasing scandal, driving their political leaders (Alfonso Bravo and Victoria Silvela) mad.
The Final Choice: With the elections rapidly approaching, Laura and Pablo are forced to finally confront the reality of their mutual feelings and choose between their fierce political ambition and the demands of their love.
Director's Vision: Laughing at the Polarization
Director Arantxa Echevarría's vision is to leverage the classic rom-com framework to deliver a unifying, sardonic critique of the absurd level of political polarization in modern society.
Satire as Unifier: Echevarría aims to create a necessary piece of cinema that shows, through the couple's romance, that "people from opposite sides are not so different", thereby softening the sharp edges of ideological conflict.
Focus on Performance: The direction is intentionally satirical, requiring the ensemble cast to exaggerate the shallowness and fakeness of the political figures, turning the campaign into a comedic performance.
Meaning in Micro-Scenes: The director ensured that even the small "microscenes are meaningful" and achieve their purpose, indicating a tight, well-crafted screenplay that maximizes both humor and emotional payoff.
Themes: Ideological Hypocrisy, Ambition, and Unlikely Love
The central themes focus on the performance of politics versus genuine human connection:
Ideological Hypocrisy: The film critiques the shallowness and hypocrisy of contemporary political campaigns, showing that the supposed ideological wars between parties are often just a performance driven by ambition and ego.
Ambition vs. Humanity: A central theme is the conflict between personal ambition (the desire to be an "important figure" in politics) and the authentic human feelings (love) that political life attempts to suppress or co-opt.
Polarization and Unity: The film uses the central romance as a hopeful metaphor, suggesting that love can bridge the gaps created by deep political polarization, and that basic human connection is stronger than partisan loyalty.
The Wild Card of Scandal: The plot uses scandal as an accidental force of nature, highlighting how quickly calculated political strategy can collapse when faced with unpredictable, genuine emotion.
Key Success Factors: High Critical Acclaim and Timeliness
The film's success is heavily driven by its bold political topic and commercial performance:
Box Office Success: The $1.1 million worldwide gross is a key success factor, demonstrating that films directly engaging with Spanish political satire can be a major commercial draw.
Relatability of Satire: The film's ability to successfully lampoon current affairs and political figures (e.g., the loose inspiration for the journalist character) ensures media discussion and high audience relevance.
Strong Ensemble Cast: The chemistry and commitment of the cast, particularly the lead actress Adriana Torrebejano, are crucial to making the central, unlikely romance believable and endearing.
Awards and Nominations: Focus on Film Festival Recognition
The film's commercial success and popular appeal will likely position it for nominations at national Spanish awards (Goya, Gaudí) in categories such as Best Comedy or Best New Actor/Actress. The focus is more on national audience recognition than international festival awards, though it may gain traction at specialized Spanish film festivals.
Critics reception: Praise for Timeliness and Allegorical Depth
The 2 critic reviews available are extremely polarized:
armandogpa (Featured Review, 10/10): Hailed the film as "Absolutely lovable," calling the satire "amazingly written" and praising its "necessary" message of political unity delivered through romance.
artera-27398 (Featured Review, 1/10): Dismissed the film as "Another terrible film from Spanish cinema," focusing entirely on a polemic against state subsidies for Spanish film, thus confirming the film's strong power to provoke political and cultural debate.
Reviews: Polarizing Audience Reaction Driven by Execution
IMDb User Rating: The film holds a divided average user rating of 5.1/10 from 628 votes. This highly polarized score confirms that the film is a lightning rod for political sentiment, with users rating based on their ideological agreement with the satire rather than purely objective cinematic quality.
Emotional Divide: Reviews confirm the film either deeply resonates, leading to a 10/10 rating for its message of unity, or intensely offends, leading to 1/10 ratings from viewers who view the satire as a cultural "mess."
What Movie Trend film is following: The Political Satire Romantic Comedy
The film is following the specialized movie trend of the Political Satire Romantic Comedy, successfully blending the high stakes of an election campaign with the human drama of an improbable romance to critique the performance and hypocrisy of polarized modern politics.
What Big Social Trend is following: Political Polarization and the Search for Common Ground
The big social trend the film is following is Political Polarization and the Search for Common Ground. The film uses its central relationship to explore the societal fatigue with endless ideological conflict and proposes, humorously and optimistically, that human connection can transcend partisan divides.
What Consumer Trend is following: Demand for High-Concept, Topical Comedy
The consumer trend followed is the Demand for High-Concept, Topical Comedy. Audiences are attracted to local films that offer both the reliability of the Rom-Com genre and a smart, humorous commentary on the most pressing issues in their country's current political climate.
Final Verdict: A Sharp, Sincere Critique of Political Performance
Políticamente incorrectos is a sharp, commercially successful Spanish comedy that brilliantly weaponizes the "opposites attract" trope to deliver a necessary satire of modern political posturing. Driven by strong performances and a sincere belief in the possibility of unity, it is a highly relevant commentary on the conflict between authentic human connection and ruthless political ambition.
Key Trend highlighted – The effective use of romantic comedy to create a highly relevant and profitable satire on political polarization and campaign hypocrisy.
Key Insight – The film demonstrates that when political conflict becomes purely performative, it is the unscripted, genuine human element of love that causes the most unpredictable and hilarious scandals.
Similar movies: Political Moral Dramas and Dissident Narratives
The Campaign (2012): A sharp, American political satire focused on two rival candidates whose antics escalate into absurd scandals.
Long Shot (2019): A high-concept romantic comedy where a low-status journalist becomes involved with a high-powered politician (the Secretary of State), exploring the clash between politics and intimacy.
Welcome to the Sticks (2008) / Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis: A massive French box office hit that uses humorous culture clash (regional vs. city) to ultimately promote unity and mutual understanding, similar to this film's ideological clash.