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As Luck Would Have It

2011

La chispa de la vida

Roberto is an unemployed publicist who achieved success when he thought of a famous slogan: "Coca-Cola, the spark of life." Now he is a desperate man, trying to remember the happy days, back to the hotel where he spent the honeymoon with his wife. However, instead of the hotel, he finds a museum built around the Roman theater in the city. While walking through the ruins, he has an accident, an iron rod sticks into his head and leaves him completely paralyzed. If he tries to move he would die. Roberto becomes the focus of the media, which will change his life ...

Salma Hayek Pinault Santiago Segura Carolina Bang Blanca Portillo José Mota Nacho Vigalondo Javier Botet Concha García Campoy Nerea Camacho Fernando Tejero Javier Gutiérrez Juan Luis Galiardo Eduardo Casanova Juanjo Puigcorbé Antonio Garrido Manuel Tallafé José Manuel Cervino Diego Calderón Esther Munuera Ferrán Gadea Josto Maffeo Oskar Ramos Elvira Lomba Lutgardo Fernández Joaquín Climent Guillermo Toledo Antonio de la Torre Angie Paul Risque

Alternative Titles

The Spark of Life, Zycie to Jest to, Un jour de chance, A Centelha da Vida, 幸不幸由你, Последняя искра жизни, Talihin Böylesi, Un Jour de chance, Życie to jest to, Искрата на живота, Остання іскра життя

Genres

Comedy Drama

Premiere

25 Jul 2012

Canada Fantasia International Film Festival

Theatrical

30 Nov 2011

Spain

08 Feb 2012

Germany

13 Apr 2012

Poland

24 Apr 2012

11 Dec 2012

FranceU

20 Dec 2012

Ukraine

Canada

25 Jul 2012

Premiere Fantasia International Film Festival

France

11 Dec 2012

TheatricalU

Germany

08 Feb 2012

Theatrical

Poland

13 Apr 2012

Theatrical

Spain

30 Nov 2011

Theatrical

USA

24 Apr 2012

Theatrical

Ukraine

20 Dec 2012

Theatrical

98 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Naughty aka Juli Norwood ★★★★★ 1

The best little film you have never heard of! I saw it again tonight for the 3rd time and it just keeps on getting better and better with each viewing!
It evokes strong emotions and opinions within me! I'm angered by the media's attachment to gruesome events to raise their ratings on tv! Perhaps my anger has been misplaced! It should be visited upon us the viewers who reward tv stations for their blood thirsty sensationalism by turning them on in the first place, thus creating the demand!
I think everyone can relate to Roberto's (José Mota) situation! He lost more than just a job, he lost his dignity! He knows he'll never get another job because he's a dinosaur…
Review by More_Badass ★★★

Competent, engrossing, and with a verve that’s expected from Alex de la Iglesia, but even with its bizarre ghoulish new-millennium-Phinius-Gage premise, this was underwhelming. Salma Hayek comes out of this as its strongest aspect, her performance outshining the media-circus satire and outrageous duel of opportunity versus family. I’m impressed that de la Iglesia was able to make such a contained rooted-to-the-spot film feel this energetic and lively. And yet it’s his most decidedly decent movie yet. A whole lot of surface send-ups and archetypes, although the melodrama and more real tragic moments did feel surprisingly earned.
Review by Pablo Antelo ★★★½

Network + Ace in the Hole + Alex de la Iglesia = "La Chispa de la Vida".
Review by Ronan Doyle ★★★★

Review from Next Projection
Of the vast plethora of recent films which deign to deal with the fallout of the financial crisis, few have had the confidence to broach the subject with comedy, even horror—for once—a more widely-used tool in the exploration of these key contemporary issues. Álex de la Iglesia opts to broaden the field with As Luck would Have It, a quasi-absurdist production that ably juggles the responsibilities of portraying with sincerity and sensitivity the difficult lives of the financially troubled with the requirement of entertaining its audience through the increasing oddity of this politically-charged parable.
Playing a hero who would not look out of place at the centre of a Woody Allen film, José Mota is Roberto,…
Review by Jose Menor ★★ 3

This is one the lamest films I've seen lately, which is a shame if you take into account that it's from Alex de la Iglesia, a director which movies used to be quite cynical and with dark humor.
Review by Olevar ★★½ 1

Cosas que se aprenden viendo esta película: la primera, Salma Hayek puede estar en serio mal cuando no está bien dirigida. No tiene una palabra bien dicha o medianamente interpretada en la duración entera del filme. Segunda, Carolina Bang es una de las mujeres más guapas sobre la tierra y pienso ver cada una de las películas en las que aparezca. La película no está mal, tiene su onda y a pesar de que no le llega a otras de Álex de la Iglesia, es entretenida y tiene unos detalles muy divertidos. Tal vez siendo más sutil y dejando que el público llegara a sus propias conclusiones, la película funcionaría mejor. Y si no estuviera Salma Hayek ahí, funcionaría mucho más. Pero así es la vida. Pasa.
Review by Luis LS ½

Pretenciosa, hortera, demagógica. Una pérdida de tiempo irritante.
Review by Mar_Reche ★★★

Una de esas películas que resultan frustrantes, porque ves claramente lo que está intentando hacer y casi, casi funciona.
Alex de la Iglesia hace aquí su homenaje quizás más explícito a la tradición de comedia negra mediterránea, partiendo de una premisa simple pero brillante y demostrando que no necesita acción constante ni múltiples cambios de escenario para construir una película visualmente interesante.
Es una pena que en esta sátira tirando a coral, los personajes secundarios estén, en general, construidos de forma tan imprecisa. ¿De qué va el personaje de Antonio Garrido? ¿Y el de Fernando Tejero? ¿Por qué el personaje de Juan Luis Galiardo da mucho menos juego del que cabría esperar?
No sabría decir si el problema está en…
Review by CJ Johnson ★★★

A clear descendant of Ace In The Hole
And could have been called Face On The Pole.
Review by Goremonger ★★

Definitely de la Iglesia's weakest effort IMO. I'm not sure why this is even something he contemplated making. It feels like he lost a bet and unpassionately got it made and rid of it.
The movie tries to walk a tin line between comedy and drama but unfortunately falls on the latter pretty much at every turn. The jokes are clumsy. The whole thing is clumsy. Even his directing is bordeline amateurish. It's also way too much on the nose with its commentary on the media. It just fails at so many levels. And it tops everything with a depressing ending. This is so far off his body of work.
Review by AlexTrebol ★

La intención es buena, hacer humor negro y sátira a partir del optimismo más estúpido y simplista, pero hombre, se quedo solo en intento.
Review by Simon 14A ★★★

Definitely not essential de la Iglesia and far from his craziest, but it gives you something to think about and remind you that people are shits. You can tell it was made in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

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As Luck Would Have It

La chispa de la vida

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Studios

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Primary Language

Spoken Languages

Alternative Titles

Genres

Premiere

25 Jul 2012

Theatrical

30 Nov 2011

08 Feb 2012

13 Apr 2012

24 Apr 2012

11 Dec 2012

20 Dec 2012

Canada

25 Jul 2012

France

11 Dec 2012

Germany

08 Feb 2012

Poland

13 Apr 2012

Spain

30 Nov 2011

USA

24 Apr 2012

Ukraine

20 Dec 2012

Popular reviews

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Producers

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Cinematography

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