''Abracadabra'' is a 2017 Spanish-French

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film written and directed by

Pablo Berger Pablo Berger Uranga (born 1963) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. He is known for directing and writing the silent drama film '' Blancanieves'' (2012), the black comedy films '' Torremolinos 73'' (2003) and ''Abracadabra'' (2017), a ...

. It stars Maribel Verdú, Antonio de la Torre and José Mota. It was shortlisted as one of the three films to choose from to determine the Spanish submission for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

at the

90th Academy Awards The 90th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2017, and took place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The ceremony was held on March 4, ...

Plot

Carmen is married to Carlos, a rude, emotionally abusive

construction worker A construction worker is a person employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definitions By some definitions, construction workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers ...

who barely pays any attention to his wife and teenage daughter. One night, during a wedding, Carlos pretends to offer himself for the act of Carmen's cousin, supermarket security guard and amateur

hypnotist Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychological ...

Pepe, 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 believes he is still joking. From the next day onwards, Carlos starts having lapses of time where he shows a very different personality, behaving instead 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 has brief but dangerous episodes of

psychosis In psychopathology, psychosis is a condition in which a person is unable to distinguish, in their experience of life, between what is and is not real. Examples of psychotic symptoms are delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized or inco ...

. She enlists the aid of Pepe and his hypnotism teacher, odontologist Dr. Fumetti, 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 times. After investigating further, Carmen and Pepe eventually find out the identity of the dead man, a dancing prodigy named Alberto "Tito" Cantero who had

schizophrenia Schizophrenia () is a mental disorder characterized variously by hallucinations (typically, Auditory hallucination#Schizophrenia, hearing voices), delusions, thought disorder, disorganized thinking and behavior, and Reduced affect display, f ...

and murdered his own mother before committing suicide in 1983. This is further proved in a club, in which Carlos dances spectacularly with Carmen to

Steve Miller Band The Steve Miller Band is an American rock music, rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966. The band is led by Steve Miller (musician), Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles ...

's "Abracadabra" song. Carmen, Pepe and Dr. Fumetti hold a

séance A séance or seance (; ) is an attempt to communicate with spirits. The word ''séance'' comes from the French language, French word for "session", from the Old French , "to sit". In French, the word's meaning is quite general and mundane: one ma ...

through the body of a dying old man to try to convince Tito to leave Carlos alone, but the spirit refuses claiming 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

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (; ''Pan troglodytes''), also simply known as the chimp, is a species of Hominidae, great ape native to the forests and savannahs of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close rel ...

s tormenting him. At his new job as a steward, Tito has a breakdown, and only the arrival of Carmen and Pepe impedes him from possibly murdering an entire wedding with a knife. In order to solve the situation once for all, Pepe pretends to be an entertainer and performs a hypnotism act for the guests, which he uses to send both Tito and Carmen to the depths of Carlos's mind. Here she finds the mental representations of both men, each pleading for her to allow them to take over the body, with Carlos promising to make up for his failure as a husband and father. She faces a difficult decision, but despite seemingly accepting Tito over Carlos, she stabs Tito with the mental representation of the knife, sending his soul to the afterlife for good. After waking up, she leaves silently the restaurant, implying she has decided to abandon Carlos and seek a better life.

Cast

Production

The film was produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures alongside Perséfone Films, Pegaso Pictures, Noodles Production and Films Distribution, in association with

Atresmedia Cine Atresmedia Cine (formerly Ensueño Films and Antena 3 Films) is the studio belonging to Grupo Atresmedia responsible for producing films. It was created in 2000. History The film production company was created after the enacting of the Spanish ...

and with the participation of

Atresmedia Atresmedia Corporación de Medios de Comunicación, S.A., previously Grupo Antena 3, is a Spanish media group, present in the television, radio and filmmaking industries. Significant shareholders include Grupo Planeta and Bertelsmann. On 6 Marc ...

and

Movistar+ Movistar Plus+ (formerly Movistar+) is the trade name of the subscription platform for digital television owned by , which operates in Spain. The service is distributed via optical fiber and ADSL as well as with satellites such as Astra. The pl ...

Release

Distributed by

Sony Pictures Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. is an American diversified multinational mass media and entertainment studio conglomerate that produces, acquires, and distributes filmed entertainment (theatrical motion pictures, television programs, and rec ...

, ''Abracadabra'' was released theatrically in Spain on 4 August 2017. French distribution was handled by Condor Distribution, that scheduled a 4 April 2018 theatrical release date.

Reception

''Abracadabra'' has an approval rating of 100% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 6 reviews, and an average rating of 7/10.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Abracadabra 2017 films 2017 fantasy films 2017 black comedy films 2017 comedy-drama films Spanish fantasy films Spanish black comedy films Spanish comedy-drama films French fantasy comedy-drama films French black comedy films 2010s Spanish-language films 2010s Spanish films Sony Pictures films Arcadia Motion Pictures films Atresmedia Cine films Films about schizophrenia Films about spirit possession Spanish-language French films