Film Review:
I Love You, Stupid
(Te Quiero, Imbécil)

A grating experience, this steals ideas from better movies and TV shows, offers zilch suspense in the will-they-or-won’t-they? central relationship, and then runs out of ideas halfway through and opts to, for example, ‘hilariously’ have Marcos hospitalised after a sex-related back injury.

Marcos is introduced being understandably dumped by Ana (Alba Ribas), his partner for eight years, on the very night he proposes, and when he turns to break the fourth wall and talk to the camera, it’s hard not to think of the far preferable Fleabag (or even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, if you must). Our gormless hero then loses his job and feels doubly miserable, but after advice from an online self-help guru (Ernesto Alterio), he sets about bullying his sleazy friend Diego (Alfonso Bassave) into hiring him for an internet gig, cleaning himself up and hitting the tawdry-looking local dating scene.

All this nonsense is in motion when, by sheer chance, Marcos runs into the pink-haired Raquel, an old schoolfriend who offers him much advice about women while trying hard not to fall for him herself. And Raquel is played by internationally-known British actress Natalia Tena, a veteran of several Harry Potter pics and a lady cool enough to look sophisticated even while playing the accordion.

Why Raquel would find Marcos irresistible is a mystery, but we know she eventually has to because there’s no movie if she doesn’t, and while we’re waiting for this to somehow happen, Marcos goes on a number of Tinder dates where he behaves like a jerk and treats the girls with much contempt. But that’s Tinder for you, huh?

Even stooping to rip-off the beloved deli sequence from When Harry Met Sally… (you know the one!), director Mañá’s movie might still be worth enduring if you’ve watched all the other 57397 romantic comedies on Netflix. But only if quarantine is really, really getting to you.

I Love You, Stupid (MA) is now streaming on Netflix