‘Living is Easy’ is easy to love; playing Oct. 9 in Richland
There has been confusion in this column and with readers about the start time of Battelle Film Club movies. To set the record straight, the club changed the start time this year from 7:30 to 8 p.m.
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed is a movie about an even sweeter Spanish school teacher and two hitchhikers. Set in Spain in 1966, Antonio takes a short vacation and makes a trek to meet John Lennon when he was in the country to do a leading role in the movie How I Won the War.
Antonio is obsessed with the Beatles and teaches their song lyrics to his students and analyzes them as if they are as deeply important as classic literature. On his way to Almeria, where the film is being shot, Antonio picks up a kid running away from home and a pregnant teen running away from a home for unwed mothers.
Writer-director David Trueba’s movie is a great character study, and you’ll fall as much in love with his characters and their plights as I did. Javier Camara is a total treat as the dumpy, bald but impossibly positive Antonio.
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed is easy to love with eyes open and one of the best films of 2013.
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed
Director: David Trueba
Stars: Javier Camara, Natalie de Molina, Francesc Colomer, Ramon Fontsere
Mr. Movie rating: 5 stars
Not rated. Probably PG-13 for mature themes and brief nudity. It plays at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Battelle Auditorium in Richland.
5 stars to 4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen.
4 stars to 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it’s your type of movie.
3 stars to 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars to 1 star: Don’t bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself.
This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 6:43 PM with the headline "‘Living is Easy’ is easy to love; playing Oct. 9 in Richland."