Review: I'm so excited

As a rule, film directors are rarely seen on the Graham Norton Show. The toocheses that grace his scarlet sofa are strictly A-list, front-of-camera types with Quentin Tarantino being one of the few auteurs to ever make the guest-list. Until last week. That was when smiling Spanish director Pedro Almodovar popped up to promote his film I’m So Excited — which host Norton certainly seemed to be, and with good reason. El Gran Pedro is a two-time Oscar and Palme d’Or winner responsible for such box office hits as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and All About My Mother, which, despite their monikers, are devoid of Jewish female content.

Stranded somewhere between a CBeebies programme and a top-shelf magazine, I’m So Excited is the lame English title for Almodovar’s Los Amantes Pasajeros (passenger lovers). The latter fits perfectly and here’s why. The film is about a group of business-class travellers circling the sky in a plane with failed landing gear.

Facing impending doom, they deal with their anxiety and over-sized libidos by drinking, taking mescaline, confessing secrets and having sex with each other — and someone in economy.

Yes, los amantes pasajeros certainly suits these colourful mile-high clubbers including Bruna, (Lola Dueñas), a virginal middle-aged psychic (“my powers scare men away”); Ricardo (Guillermo Toledo), a caddish heart-throb; Benito (Hugo Silva), a hit-man and Norma, a Heidi Fleiss-type madam who is played by Pedro’s long-time muse, the Argentinian-Jewish actress, Cecilia Roth. And then there’s the crew — a camp, tequila-swigging triumvirate of stereotypically gay stewards led by the fabulous Joserra (Javier Cámara).