The Rodriguez and the Beyond

This is a sympathetic but overlong film with hilarious scenes , fantasy and wonderful happenings . Crazy family adventure comedy is set in City of Madrid, capital to Spain. The Rodríguez is a special family composed by the father, Rodrigo (Edu Soto) , a former banker reconverted in hardware store manager from a Dutch franchise of repairs named Van Vatio ; the mother, Cristina (Mariana Treviño) , a Mexican woman who works as therapist and psychologist who has as a client the Minister of finances (Enrique Villén) ; the older daughter, Alejandra (Sara Jiménez), who is dating with arrogant and paid of himself Bosco; the younger daughter, Gabriela, an outside and offbeat girl who a rare bird doll as a pet; and finally the middle son, Nico, a clever but mischievous boy who often uses to make antics , jokes and frolics along with his best friend Edu . After a visit of Rodrigo's aging mother Isabel (Geraldine Chaplin) who has Alzheimer illness and living in an elderly residence , Isabel talks in secret with Nico, giving a package to open with he be 15 years old , but unable to await Nico discovers an old VHS tape with a message from his dead grandfather (Placido Domingo) about a box buried in the garden . Digging he encounters the box and opens , finding the crank of the old fridge . As the son of the family , Nico , unleashes an incredible power , as he discovers that his late grandfather hid many secrets and the family has a connection by means of a cosmic door with another world, Maktub, but that connection endangers his family and even the very existence of both planets . Putting on its place the impossible when a man named Félix appears on the house and takes the family across of a dimensional portal.

Los Rodríguez y el Más Allá is a family-style film that takes us to a story with science fiction overtones in which a peculiar family becomes involved in a time portal and their members holding supernatural powers . The young children are one of the great successful protagonists of the film . Not only do they exude naturalness , mirth , and enormous chemistry , but they also take the film on their shoulders and carry it to the end with more pleasantness than other experienced actors . Our starring family being accompanied by an attractive plethora of ordinary secondaries such as : Macarena Gómez , Geraldine Chaplin , Enrique Villén, Rossy de Palma , Tomás Pozzi, opera singer Placido Domingo , Eduardo Gómez and Santiago Segura in his regular role as the villain but likeable enemy . The production design , with that recreation of the fifties on the neighboring planet , is excellent , including state-of-art special effects and there are characters like Rossy de Palma, who will win the applause from all over the world and get loud laughter , but they don't make up for the rest of a trip which is pretty long , with an excessively flat narrative and with a really bland path , including silly incidents for the outlandish characters , but at least being moderately interesting for the audience .

The motion picture was well directed by the philantropic filmmaker Paco Arango who has an interesting career and as usual in his cinema, part of the proceeds (244.000EUR) went to help children with cancer through the Aladina Foundation. In 1999 he started his own television production company. He created and wrote several shows, one of which Ala Dina became one of Spain's top-rated shows, and ran for three seasons. In 2011, he wrote and directed his first movie: "Maktub". The film was well received in Spain and garnered three nominations at the Spanish Academy (Goya) Awards. The movie's proceeds went to the construction of the "Maktub Center", the number one paediatric bone marrow transplant wing in Spain. His second film, "The Healer" (2017) , was the first film in the world to donate 100% of its proceeds to children with cancer or in vulnerable situations all over the world.. It features a cast of well-known actors and it's dedicated to Paul Newman. It was shown in 16 countries, was a major hit in Spain, México, Central America, and Colombia with more than 2,2 million viewers. Paco combines his passion for storytelling with a deep commitment to helping seriously ill children. "Fundación Aladina uses color and smiles to brighten hospital stays for each and every child, as well as their families. It fills me with joy to affirm that Aladina helps kids fight childhood cancer, so that it is never able to take away a child's smile. Paco Arango's new movie Los Rodríguez y el más allá (2019) has , as always in his career, the incentive of being advertised as a film whose part of the proceeds will go directly to the Aladina Foundation, to help children with cancer. As the film entertains us in spite of some embarrissing messes and makes us laugh from time to time, but fails on some levels . Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worth seeing .