I Watch Films: Love And Pain And The Whole Damn Thing

 

Love And Pain And The Whole Damn Thing

Walter (Timothy Bottoms), a directionless American college student, is sent on a biking tour of Spain to try and buck him up. Finding it hot and difficult (he’s asthmatic) he abandons his group and joins a coach tour, sitting next to prim and proper English spinster Lila Fisher (Maggie Smith).

Lila is hit on by a Spanish man who uses bird calls as his chat up technique and she awkwardly puts him off. When Lila is trapped in a toilet and left behind, Walter convinces the driver to turn back and rescues her. The two, both awkward, slowly form a relationship. Neither can quite bring themselves to trust, even after they have sex, both seeking and refusing commitment.

Leaving the tour Walter buys a car and caravan so they can carry on together. Lila is unimpressed and they get bogged down in a storm. The Duke, who lives in a castle up the hill, sees them in trouble and invites them to dry out. When the Duke starts to charm Lila, Walter makes his declaration of love.

Lila has one last secret. Her occasional weakness and her medicines are symptoms of a fatal disease. Walter offers to marry her but she says it’s impossible, she’s too old for him, they’re too different, she’s going to die. He goes back to America, only to realise that none of that matters, they’re both going to die anyway, and returns to her, determined to stay together for as along as possible.

Is this a romance? A comedy? And therefore a romcom, from the period before the genre as we know it had crystalised? Or should we consider it rather a drama, with comic, serious and romantic elements? Perhaps we should accept it as it is, an amusing film that manages to have a bit more heart and spine that we might suspect.

Watch This: Funny, affecting film about love despite difference and difficulties
Don’t Watch This: Holiday romance comedy with pretentions