User Reviews

It's quite difficult to judge or value this Mexican film without being moved by the human emotions it intends - and succeeds - to convey.

The story is quite simple but anybody can sympathetically understand the sudden ambition of the film's main personage. He seems to be a happy retired man living in a home where is loved and well considered by his wife, his daughter and his lovely little grandchild. But he wants more and dares to challenge the unusual initiative to start a new career in a local university where he will be in contact with young students in their twenties.

The intergenerational confrontation between him and the bunch of young students is well depicted with scenes of a common daily life, inside and outside the classroom where they attend the school hours.

The acting, the photography and the varied musical score are quite appropiated. The film is a surprising success for this opera prima of its director. The final scenes of the movie are quite sentimental but genuine in a very positive way.

This is a movie to be seen by all who seek in a movie a beautiful human story and a nice exposition of human values in terms of respect, appreciation, friendship and true loving sympathy.

Don Quijote, the fictional personage of the famous Cervantes's novel would be delighted to see this film, and obviously his faithful companion Sancho Panza.

This is a most to see movie, for all those - students and teachers - who are in search of human values in people who are living close to us. Roberto Girault has realized a nice film worth of a second vision.

Highly recommended by some people I really respect I went to see this movie. The main argument behind the recommendation was "the message" this movie delivers. After 90 minutes of excruciating pain, I can tell you: the message are bad news. This movie takes back Mexican Cinema more than 40 years - at least- and it looks like the movie was made right in the 60's, along with some Mexican Marga Lopez' classics such as La Edad de la Inocencia or La sombra de los hijos. With a cast of unknown actors -just three recognizable faces - and a generic soapy theme, it is pretty hard to expect great deliverance and quality in acting, yet the amateurish use of cameras and obvious lack of direction results in a total fiasco. However, the main problem here is the screenplay that reduces Don Quixote novel to mere phrases or quotes recited with childish style by the actors. The interaction between the old character and his much younger counterparts is never truly developed and ends up being totally unreal and not believable - not to mention the lack of modern language that clearly sets this movie as an anachronism. Trust me there is no college educated Mexican young person who speaks like the characters or who does not know Jose Alfredo Jimenez - for Christ sake , being Mexican and not knowing him is a blasphemy !!

Probably the decision of not including crude language has to do with the intention of creating a "family movie with high values", well if that was the intention, the result is a pamphlet or a brochure ...mere propaganda, and as you know...propaganda is no good.

On the other hand if the goal was to make a movie about bonding, friendship and the continuous learning despite the generations gap, they may had take some lessons from other sources. Grand Torino or UP rings a bell, don't they ???

This movie is incredible. Incredibly bad that is. It is pompous, preposterous, unrealistic, naive, a postcard-like, in the vein of the famous, so much criticized and ridiculed t.v. "sopa operas" or "culebrones" coming out of Mexico. It presents Mexico and its people as some caricatures of what the film director would like them to be. The old fellow preaches to his much younger fellow students and they just nod, there is a lesson about drug taking, u see, u should not because then u will have no money to pay so the bad drug dealer will have u beaten up. U should try to read verses from Don Quijote to the complete strangers, it will make their day and yours. The old man preaches to others about life but when his equally old wife dies (and the best possible kind death it was - in her sleep) he despairs and asks the Lord the most naive and senile questions. It is all too schmaltzy, too sentimental, to corny. The student pregnant with her teacher's baby baptizes it Alicia, like the old men's dead wife. He bursts into tears at hearing this. How touching, how true. They are true friends u know, him and a group of 20 year olds, because they have known him for a few months, he is only 40 years older and he preached to them. Like in real life. The old man talks to the statue of Don Quijote and admits he has learned a lot at the university. I wonder what, a few words that the young use these days? Because nothing else. Neither do we, we learn nothing true and real about the students in Mexico these days, nothing about the old days and passing away, nothing about the differences between being young and old. In addition the cinematography is poor, the fim has a grainy transfer, the photos are poor, we see very little of the supposedly beautiful Guanajuato. I like "feel good" movies, nothng wrong with them from time to time. But they must be made in a clever, intelligent, convincing way, not like this. The most amazing of this cinematic "experience" was to watch it in a full cinema in Mexico. The room liked the film, the room found it good. Which says a lot about the state of mind of a typical Mexican person, who is polite, polished, smiling and pleasant, but apparently also superficial.

I choose to see this movie expecting to see either of two, a comedy (National Lampoon's Van Wilder) or a touch in the heart movie (Death poets society, with honors) but I found neither of those.

At first it seems to be a comedy, an old man going back to school, entering the classroom he finds the students believing he is the teacher until the teacher arrives. But that's the only fun part in the movie. The other "fun" parts are boring and predictable.

The seriousness of the film starts, with predictable ultra moralist scripts, and non believable performances, forced histories, not related to each other, is like seeing a Mexican soap opera. --SPOILER ALERT-- The death of the wife was so forced and stupid to the story is like trying to force the audience to cry so pathetic.

The end of the film is one of the worst things. It sucks big time, but people are praising the story because is ultra moralist, and church friendly, not because is a good film, is the kind of story moms want to show their kids to "teach them" some good things.

Someone I trust recommended this film to me. I was really surprised. It was really bad, and got worse with each and every minute. Basically, it is a Disney movie, only the bad American actors were replaced by bad Mexican actors.

Maybe, as years pass by, I might be able to forgive the friend that enticed me to spend valuable time watching this sorry piece of wasted celluloid. Time that I will never get back.

This is not just one of the worst movies I have ever seen, but the worst Mexican movie I've ever seen, without any doubt. If they have the Razzies in Guanujato, this movie would walk away with all the prices.