SEnglish and available 2 is the sequel to a Peruvian female comedy released in 2018 on Netflix. A story based on Maria José Osorio’s blog, which tells the story of three young millennials. Now the girls have grown up and are now in their thirties, still single. They support each other, they cry a little and laugh (a lot). Together they face the search for love and for a role in the world. Directed by Joanna Lombardi, could repeat the success of five years ago.
Single and 2 available: the plot
Maria Fe (Gisela Ponce de Léon) is a blogger who, after the success of launching her blog, is working on her second novel, but without managing to create anything interesting. With the pandemic, she returned to live with her parents in Arequipa, a town in Peru. Unable to get out of a professional and existential impasse, she decides to move to Lima to live with her friend Carolina (Karina Jordan). With the two best friends, Carolina and Natalia (Jelly Réategui), Maria Fè leads a single life: evenings in clubs, love misadventures, confidences, life plans.
Until the father by Maria Fe he dies of a heart attack. For women it is a very strong shock. The father will not disappear from the film, “Fefè” will find him from time to time ghost, next to him, with his advice, his observations, his love. Here the story takes on a more serious tone and deals with the theme of the loss of a loved one. “We couldn’t just talk about heart problems after living through a period like the pandemic,” said director Joanna Lombardi.
Jeli Reàtequi (Carolina), Gisela Ponce de Leòn (Maria Fè), Karina Jordàn (Natalia) in a scene from the Peruvian film. (Netflix)
The woman’s life continues. In Lima, Maria Fè finds herself again Luca Mancini, a young summer love, who becomes the owner of a club. She will win him back guided by the advice of her friends, but it won’t last. In the meantime, her mother, seeing her sad and unable to find her way, enrolls her in an online workshop, a sort of group psychotherapy.
She is initially wary and laughs it off. Little by little she will be able to open up to the group and to this psychotherapist, a woman more interested in selling books than in helping her patients grow. But the experience before her did not convince her it will open other doors for the protagonist.
Gisela Ponce de Leòn (Maria Fè), a slightly clumsy thirty-year-old in the sequel to the comedy. (Netflix)
Single and 2 available: cast and review
The actress Gisela Ponce de Leon she is very comfortable in the part of this thirty-year-old who is a little awkward and undecided about what to do with her life, afflicted by the pain of loss, but always ready to smile. Also noteworthy is the rest of the cast: the two friends, the boys, Maria Fè’s father and mother.
The film has as its target the millennials and in fact he narrates with sensitivity and lightness the world, the feelings and dreams of thirty-year-olds. The relationship with the loss of an important affection is treated in a touching way. The comedy is well written, the dialogues are very effervescent. But here we stop because the bubbles have run out, behind the nice jokes («I’m vegan, but I wouldn’t say no to that beef», says one of Maria Fè’s friends), it remains a plot that is far too simple, with a frankly phoned-in ending.
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