Me Too - Who Wants to Be Normal? - DVD

Film: Despite having just one small chromosome too many, life has been a huge challenge for Daniel (Pablo Pineda) since childhood. After graduating from college with honors, a rarity for a person with Down syndrome, he is looking forward to finally pursuing a real career. But his joy is dampened when he discovers that even here he encounters reservations, reticence and prejudice everywhere he goes. Even his family does not give him the support he could use in this situation. Only in his non-conformist colleague Laura (Lola Dueñas) does he find a friend with whom he quickly develops more than just friendly feelings. But is a relationship between a man with Down syndrome and a "normal" woman even possible?

"Me Too - Who Wants to Be Normal" is a warm-hearted love film, a quiet comedy that defies almost every common genre cliché. It is especially the wonderful leading actors and the uninhibited staging that make this film so worth seeing. Pablo Pineda, in real life the first European with Down syndrome to graduate from secondary school, plays Daniel authentically and endearingly, but cleverly avoids making the audience feel sorry for him because of his Down syndrome. Rather, one suffers with him as he falls (initially?) unhappily in love with a woman with whom a normal relationship seems impossible.

While the relationship between people with Down syndrome and what we like to call normal society is always at the center of the film. And yet, the directors and his actors manage to make the audience forget this when the tender, intimate moments between Daniel and Laura play out. Here, then, it's all about a rather unusual love story between two outwardly completely different people, but who are so closely connected because of their position within - or rather outside - society.

In the end, the film makes one thing clear: love is and should be the same for everyone. The fact that this actually quite simple message is conveyed in such an endearing and original way makes "Me Too - Who Wants to Be Normal" a wonderfully refreshing and absolutely worth seeing contribution to European arthouse cinema. Absolutely recommendable!

Picture + Sound: Technically, the DVD is on a decent level, although the film's rather modest budget is quite visible. Particularly in darker scenes, the picture looks a little grainy and there are some shortcomings in contrast and sharpness of detail. The audio is largely very restrained and is limited to directionally mixed dialogue and some decent ambient noise. Good!

Extras: The optional German subtitled Making of offers a decent insight into the making of the film in its short running time. The cut scenes, on the other hand, disappoint with their lack of optional subtitles, which means they can only be recommended to viewers with a good knowledge of Spanish. In addition to these two extras, the DVD has the Spanish teaser and trailer, as well as the German theatrical trailer to offer

Conclusion: In the cinema, "Me Too - Who wants to be normal?" was a real surprise success. On DVD, this could now be repeated, because this endearing film was well converted for home theater and also brings a worth seeing, although far too short Making of with it. Recommendable

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp