Abracadabra (2017 film)

Abracadabra is a 2017 Spanish comedy film directed by Pablo Berger.[3] It was shortlisted as one of the three films to be selected as the potential Spanish submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards.[4][5] However, it was not selected, with Summer 1993 being selected as the Spanish entry.[6]

Abracadabra
Film poster
Directed byPablo Berger
Written byPablo Berger
StarringMaribel Verdú
Music byAlfonso de Vilallonga
CinematographyKiko de la Rica
Edited byDavid Gallart
Production
company
Distributed bySony Pictures Releasing International
Release date
  • 4 August 2017 (2017-08-04)
Running time
96 minutes
CountrySpain
LanguageSpanish
Box office$2 million[1][2]

Plot

Carmen (Verdú) is married to Carlos (De la Torre), a rude, emotionally abusive construction worker who barely pays any attention to his wife and teenage daughter. One night, during a family party, Carlos pretends to offer himself for the act of Carmen's cousin, supermarket security guard and amateur hypnotist Pepe (Mota), but he instead crashes Pepe's performance as his idea of a joke. However, he ends up unexpectedly affected by the hypnosis, to the point of holding Pepe hostage with a knife for a moment while everybody believe he is still joking. From the next day onwards, Carlos starts having lapses of time where he shows a very different personality, behaving like a loving, charismatic and intelligent man. Shocked yet gradually delighted, Carmen welcomes this change, but she starts suspecting there is something sinister behind it when Carlos's second personality suffers brief but dangerous episodes of psychosis.

She enlists the aid of Pepe and his hypnotism teacher, odontologist Dr. Fumetti (Pou), and together discover the truth: Carlos had sleeping mediumnic abilities, and the failed hypnosis act caused a dead man's soul to forge a spiritual link with him, possessing him at several moments. After investigating further, Carmen and Pepe eventually find out the identity of the dead man, a dancing prodigy named Tito (Gutiérrez) who suffered from schizophrenia and murdered his own mother before committing suicide 15 years before. His identity is further proved in a club, in which Carlos dances spectacularly with Carmen to Steve Miller Band's "Abracadabra" song. Carmen, Pepe and Dr. Fumetti hold a séance through the body of a dying old man to try to convince Tito to leave Carlos alone, but the spirit refuses on the claim to be in love with Carmen. The latter impulsively drives Dr. Fumetti away when he tries to destroy the spirit by killing the old man, which would have killed Carlos too.

Time passes, and Carmen is left conflicted about what to do, while the Tito-possessed Carlos becomes increasingly unhinged due to his constant psychotic visions of chimpanzees tormenting him. At his new job as a steward, Tito suffers a breakdown while working on wedding, and only the arrival of Carmen and Pepe impedes him from possibly murdering the entire restaurant with a knife. In order to solve the situation once for all, Pepe pretends to be an entertainer and celebrates an impromptu hypnotism act for the guests, which he uses to send both Tito and Carmen to the bottom of Carlos's mind. Here she finds the mental representations of both men, equally pleading for her to allow them to take over the body. She faces a difficult decision, but despite seeming willing to accept the charming Tito over the brutish Carlos, she suddenly stabs Tito with the mental representation of the knife, sending his soul to the afterlife for good. After waking up, Carlos tries to make up with her for his failures as a husband and father, but she ignores him and leaves silently the restaurant, implying she has decided to abandon him and seek a better life.

Cast
gollark: I would make it as ridiculous as possible while still having it work.
gollark: Dogecoin is basically Litecoin. If I were to ironically make one, it would be technologically ironic too, somehow.
gollark: Please, I would only make a cryptocurrency *ironically*.
gollark: Troubling.
gollark: You could check an online dictionary.

References
  1. "Abracadabra". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  2. "Abracadabra". The Numbers. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  3. "Top 100 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2017: #57. Pablo Berger's Abracadabra". Ion Cinema. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  4. "Spain's finalist movies fighting for Oscar 2018". elblogdecineespanol. 17 August 2017. Retrieved 20 August 2017.
  5. "'Abracadabra': Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter. 22 August 2017. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  6. Keslassy, Elsa (7 September 2017). "Spain Sends Carla Simon's feature debut 'Summer 1993' to Foreign-Language Oscar Race". Variety. Retrieved 7 September 2017.
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