Romanian film review: Chasing the money- Horses are green on the wall

Comedies, social, retro, or romantic, seem to be going strong lately, with the hip romance “Sweet Little Lies“ and last year's hit “Of Snails and Men“ doing very nicely at the Romanian box office. One always reliable source of comedy is, as the latter example glamurously shows, the fantasy to get rich. Fast. The downright stupidity connected with this particular dream is also the topic of the somewhat strangely-titled Horses Are Green on the Wall/Şi caii sunt verzi pe pereţi. The film weaves together two parallel stories, one of a young man winning a million Euro in a tobacco company contest and the other featuring an older employee who loses his job due to his complete ignorance of computers. They both come across a lot of money, or the illusion of it, and they both have to tackle some awkward problems related to the cash. Needless to say, they are not only connected through their financial clumsiness. Actor-turned-director Dan Chişu has tried his hand at comedy in the past years and while I am not sure whether he has polished his style in the process, this one is smooth on the eye and on the ear. The dialogue has some nice turns and the acting is good since it is always a pleasure to watch great actor Adrian Titieni, here playing the endearing older hero fighting a battle against desktops and spam mails. Unfortunately the young actors cannot keep up with him and the more experienced thesps, making you wish for more 'mature' scenes. The film's calm style is also a nice touch although there are some scenes which will make you fantasize about a more energetic editor. It will hardly rock your cinematic world but the main actor alone would be a more than enough reason to hit the theatres. Speaking of which, you can check the films screening dates and venues here. And have a look at the English subtitled trailer:

By Ioana Moldovan, columnist, ioana.moldovan@romania-insider.com (photo source: film official Facebook page; still from the film)