Me Too - Who Wants to Be Normal?

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's 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, for 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 think of as normal society is always at the center of the film, it is the relationship between people with Down syndrome and normal society that is the focus 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 take place. 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 of - society.

In the end, the film makes one thing clear: love is and should be the same for everyone. 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 recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp