I was much surprised to find a topic-specific idea of filming.It seems that I have underestimated Mr. Bandéras involving the role of the lover exciting but unable to revive something deep.In this sense the film has a certain suggestion on the spectator and encouraged him to search for the key lost during the teen years and feel the uncertainty of the path to browse.Unfortunately the initial pleasure goes quickly because of the lack of a balance between the model of love style "porn" and the poetic love.Indeed it is worth to see, there are times where everyone must realize that even the choice of being happy can be difficult.

An advice to many actors trying to go into directing would be: Stay in front of the camera! This could well be what one would wish Antonio Banderas, a performer that has enjoyed a good career both in his native Spain and in America. His directorial debut, "Crazy in Alabama" was not the success we are sure he expected. With his new film "El camino de los ingleses", or "Summer Rain", the English title, will not add anything for his resume. We could suggest that Mr. Banderas keeps his daytime job where he has done well.Mr. Banderas working with the Antonio Soler novel, which we have not read, goes back to the not too distant past to Malaga, his birth place, with a story that is confusing, at best, because this story of coming of age does not go anywhere the way it is presented on the screen. One had all the intentions of enjoying it, but the story is simply too local to transcend into audiences of other countries.The most interesting of the different friends that hang out together is Barbirusa, a confused young man that has to come to grips with reality when he visits his mother in London, only to realize she is a prostitute working the sex trade in an explicit way. Miguelito, the young man who falls for Luli, gets our attention, at times. He has an awakening to sex with an older teacher.One can only hope Mr. Banderas finds better material when he decides to try his hand at directing again, and to keep it simple. A lot of would be directors like to go for an artistic look that frankly doesn't add anything to what they are trying to present. That seems to be what happened to Mr. Banderas with his second film.

The beginning was interesting and promising. Dreamy and surreal. Great. BUT as the story progressed, it became an endless free fall. The use of voice over is too extensive (Somebody should teach Mr. Banderas about the value of silence. Not everything has to be blatantly explained) and tiring (even corny sometimes) and the script is simply ridiculous. It pretends to be intense and dramatic but it goes overboard towards the end, stripping it off of any dramatic feeling. It's laughable when it's supposed to be sad and it's unbelievable when it's supposed to be serious. Too bad for the actors, who deliver a good performance, in spite of such awful script. The photography is well done. But these two factors alone won't add up to a decent movie. That's why I rate it 1-awful.

I tried really hard to like this film, I promise. I enjoyed Crazy in Alabama and I like Banderas as a person. He is an interesting character. However, this film is a failure. Either that or I didn't get the point at all. Two hours of movie that feel like four, a disjointed script, some supposedly poetic images without any meaning and a bunch of wasted talented actors. It begins decently but as the plot unfolds it drifts away into a hopeless nonsense. I used to think that if I didn't understand a film it was my fault and I had to watch it again making an effort to really comprehend what it meant. Nowadays, I simply believe that if I don't get the point of the movie is just because the director didn't explain it correctly. Sorry, Antonio, try harder next time.