Butler's Cinema Scene

“I’M SO EXCITED” My rating: B-

95 minutes | MPAA rating: R

“I’m So Excited” is the gayest movie of Pedro Almodovar’s career.

Which is another way of saying that it’s really, really  gay.

It’s also amusing and wacky in a lightweight, breathless way that so reminds me of one of Almodovar’s earlier classics that it could have been called “Flight Attendants on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.”

All is quiet and peaceful on Peninsula Airlines Flight 259 from Madrid to Mexico City. Everyone in economy class is fast asleep. You can tell by the snoring, farting and drool collecting in the corners of the passengers’ mouths.

This is  because of  the muscle relaxant with which their drinks have been spiked by the three male cabin attendants.

You see, there’s a problem with the plane, one that could kill everyone on board. And rather than deal with a bunch of panicked travelers, the business-class crew — Fajas (Carlos Areces), Joserra (Javier Camara) and Ulloa (Raul Arevalo) —  have defused the situation with pharmaceuticals.

Now  these three are busily self-medicating with tequila and weed — and letting their gay sensibilities have free reign. At this point there’s nothing to lose…which may explain why they attempt to distract the passengers still awake with a fully choreographed lip sync version of the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited.”

“I’m So Excited” unfolds while the plane flies circles over Spain and the authorities on the ground try to find an open runway for a crash landing.

Jose Maria Yazpik,  Cecilia Roth

The setup is taken almost directly from the John Wayne flick “The High and the Mighty,” and like that Hollywood classic the various passengers — at least those in business class who haven’t been drugged — all have their own stories to tell.

There’s Norma (Cecilia Roth), a world-famous dominatrix whose look and manner seem to have been patterned on Vogue editor (and “Devil Wears Prada” inspiration) Anna Wintour.

There’s a mystery man (José María Yazpik) who is a dead ringer for the late Frank Zappa, from the massive schnozz to the droopy ‘stache and soul patch. Turns out he’s there to assassinate another passenger, althought the plane may do the job for him.

There are a couple of honeymooners (Miguel Ángel Silvestre, Laya Martí) and a ditzy psychic (Lola Duenas) who hopes to use the crisis to finally lose her virginity (when men get wind of her powers, she says, they tend to back off).

There’s a banker (José Luis Torrijo) who, like the banker in John Ford’s “Stagecoach,” is making an escape with purloined funds.

And finally there’s a womanizing actor named Ricardo who uses a telephone to juggle two lovers (Blanca Suarez, Paz Vega) back in Madrid. Almodovar perversely has Richardo played by Guillermo Toledo, an unshaven schlub who may be the unlikeliest sex symbol since Seth Rogen.

Lola Duenas

And up in the cockpit the two pilots (Antonio de la Toree, Hugo Silva) try to keep the plane aloft while mulling over whether now is the time to finally admit that despite their girlfriends and families, they are deep down inside absolutely gay.

This, in fact, seems to be Almodovar’s tongue-in-cheek message: that when the chips are down everybody’s queer.

“I’m So Excited” is throwaway Almodovar. But it has enough laugh-out-loud moments and visual jokes (just watch the way he lovingly films a jet airliner so that it seems to be a massive phallic symbol) to keep us amused.

| Robert W. Butler