''Chill Out!'' ( es, Descongélate!, links=no) is a 2003 Spanish comedy film written and directed by

Félix Sabroso and Dunia Ayaso Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

which stars Pepón Nieto, Candela Peña, Loles León, and Rubén Ochandiano.

Plot

Set in a multicultural neighborhood of

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...

, the plot follows struggling bit-part actor and impersonator Justo Santos, who is offered a lead role by film director Aitor, with the latter promptly dying from

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

, seemingly thwarting Justo and Justo's family (brother Berto, wife Iris, and mother Katy) yearnings to solve their dire economic hardships.

Cast

Production

The film is an El Deseo, Mediapro, and Filmanova production, with the participation of

Telemadrid Telemadrid is a public regional television station in the Community of Madrid, Spain, the flagship channel of the regional public broadcaster Radio Televisión Madrid (RTVM). It began its broadcast on 2 May 1989. History First years Telemad ...

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow unde ...

, and

Antena 3 Antena 3 may refer to: * Antena 3 (Portugal), a national radio channel produced by the Portuguese public broadcasting entity Rádio e Televisão de Portugal *Antena 3 (Romania), a Romanian television channel owned by Intact Media Group *Antena 3 (Sp ...

Release

The film screened at the 15th L'Alfàs del Pi Film Festival in July 2003. Distributed by

Warner Sogefilms Warner Sogefilms AIE was a film distribution label in Spain active from 1998 to 2005. It was created in January 1998 as a '' joint venture'' of Sogecable (Prisa) and Warner Bros., bringing the demise of Sogepaq Distribución (a previous joint ven ...

, it was released theatrically in Spain on 22 August 2003. It opened to a so-so €222,000 opening weekend gross at the domestic box office, but good word-of-mouth took it to €1.1 million after four weeks.

Reception

Jonathan Holland of '' Variety'' considered that the helmers' disposable work in earlier films "settles down into something like maturity without losing its contempo edge, and first-rate performances discover unsuspected depths in the derivative, over-the-top plotline about people frantically trying to improve their lot". Jennifer Green of ''

ScreenDaily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involved in the global film business. ...

'' deemed to film to be a "a sharp yet ultimately gentle comedy".

References