The Best of Me (2007 film)

The Best of Me
Theatrical release poster
Spanish	Lo mejor de mí
Directed by	Roser Aguilar
Screenplay by	Roser Aguilar Oriol Capel
Starring	Marian Álvarez Juan Sanz Lluís Homar Alberto Jiménez Marieta Orozco Carmen Machi Pablo Derqui
Cinematography	Isaac Vila
Edited by	Bernat Vilaplana
Music by	Jens Neumaier
Production company	Escándalo Films
Release dates	10 August 2007 (2007-08-10) (Locarno) 7 March 2008 (2008-03-07) (Spain)
Country	Spain
Language	Spanish

The Best of Me (Spanish: Lo mejor de mí) is a 2007 Spanish drama film directed by Roser Aguilar (in her directorial debut feature) which stars Marian Álvarez.

Plot

Deeply in love with athlete Tomás, journalist Raquel decides to sacrifice herself, offering as a liver donor upon her boyfriend's sudden fainting and ensuing diagnosis of a potentially deadly liver ailment.^[1]

Cast

• Marian Álvarez as Raquel^[2]
• Juan Sanz as Tomás^[2]
• Lluís Homar as Eduardo^[2]
• Alberto Jiménez as Dr. Ferrer^[2]
• Marieta Orozco [es] as Silvia^[2]
• Carmen Machi as Carmen^[2]
• Pablo Derqui as David^[2]
• Maife Gil [es] as Pilar^[2]
• Pep Cortés [ca] as Ignácio^[2]

Production

The film was produced by Escándalo Films, an initiative of the ESCAC film school.^[3] Shooting locations included the surroundings of Barcelona and the General Hospital of Sant Cugat del Vallès.^[4]

Release

The film made it to the 60th Locarno Film Festival's main competition slate, vying for the Golden Leopard.^[5][6] It was released theatrically in Spain on 7 March 2008.^[7]

Reception

Jay Weissberg of Variety deemed the film to be "a shoulder-shrugging liver transplant tale from freshman helmer Roser Aguilar that plays like a standard TV movie".^[8]

Javier Ocaña of El País deemed the film to be a "a disappointing, but by no means negligible, debut film", considering that "it starts bad", although in its second half, particularly upon the transplant, it is narrated in a "much more subtle and compelling" way.^[3]

Mirito Torreiro of Fotogramas rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, highlighting "the patience with which the plot is built" as the film's best.^[7]

See also

• List of Spanish films of 2008

References

1. Eguía, Sergio (7 March 2008). "Una ópera prima de todo corazón". El Correo. Grupo Vocento.
2. "Lo mejor de mí". Instituto Cervantes. 9 April 2010.
3. Ocaña, Javier (7 March 2008). "Sacrificio por enamoramiento". El País.
4. Niño, Victoria M. (31 October 2007). "Está aún muy arraigado el concepto de amor y sacrificio". El Norte de Castilla. Grupo Vocento.
5. "La protagonista de "Lo mejor de mí" obtiene premio a Mejor Actriz Locarno". Faro de Vigo. 11 August 2007.
6. Ospina Valencia, José (1 August 2007). "Latinoamérica presente en Festival de Cine de Locarno". dw.com.
7. Torreiro, Mirito (29 May 2008). "Lo mejor de mí". Fotogramas.
8. Weissberg, Jay (13 August 2007). "The Best of Me". Variety.