Kill Me Tender

Running time: N/A

Maribel is bored with her dull life. She is also repulsed by her mother's employer, a recent widower with a small fortune (and a bad heart), who is obsessed with Maribel's beauty and offers her a life of luxury for her hand in marriage. Desperate to get away, Maribel travels to Barcelona to visit her sister. There she meets Manolo, an excitable hunk, who has bigger plans than dressing up in a bunny suit for his job as a debt collector. Together the new lovers hatch a complicated plan that will allow them to be together in a style they may not be accustomed to, but to which they certainly feel entitled. The plot soon thickens as each blunders toward an unexpected denouement. Ingrid Rubio is enchanting as the restless Maribel, struggling to find herself in a world that doesn't seem to have a place for someone with her vitality. Director Ramâ??n de Espaâ??a deftly mixes comedy and drama in a meditation on love, desire, ambition and contentment, all the while focusing on the fragility of relationships in a striking cinematic style. It is a tale about the quiet desperation of those who never seem to be satisfied, even when happiness is staring them right in the face. - Sandy Wolf