Three Meters Above the Sky -DVD

Content: After being fined for aggravated assault, this is the last chance for hot-tempered bad boy Hugo (Mario Casas) to avoid going to jail. But Hugo has no intention of being a good boy, especially when he meets Babi (María Valverde), a girl from a good family. In his eyes, the only way to impress a luxury girl like Babi is with boorish behaviour and illegal motorcycle races. Although Babi is not very enthusiastic at first, Hugo's ploy works. And soon the two are a couple, even though they come from completely different worlds. But Hugo carries around a secret that weighs heavily on his soul, increasing his aggression by the day. And soon it threatens to destroy not only his future, but also his relationship with Babi...

Three Meters Above the Sky is the film adaptation of Frederico Moccia's bestselling novel of the same name, which also met with a very positive response in Germany. The film adaptation by director Fernando González Molina is clearly aimed at a target audience consisting of teenage girls. Therefore, some of the criticisms should not be taken too negatively. Because when the teenage hormones really go crazy at the sight of Hugo's naked torso, the female viewers don't care at all if the story is particularly original or the dialogues extremely profound.

The fact that a very classic love story is told here, which has already existed in very similar variations a thousand times, is then really not the real shortcoming of the film. Because in the successful moments this variation of the often tried dramaturgy works very well. But some clichés are so overdone that they almost take on questionable proportions. That the bad boy actually has a very big heart and a very vulnerable soul and is therefore the great romantic hero, while the nice guys are all stuffy bores or cowardly mama's boys, is unfortunately always the case with such stories. But the fact that trashing other people's houses, damaging cars and doing serious bodily harm are very easily excused (He has real problems - He doesn't get a dime from his dad) or that the girls here weaken when the guys steal money from their wallets in front of them or treat them disrespectfully and condescendingly (He's so hot) is a little annoying. It also can't be excused by the secret Hugo is carrying around. The pinnacle then is the scene where Hugo responds to Babi turning him in to the police with the extremely arrogant statement that he would have made her so crazy about him by the day he would stand trial that she would do anything to save him from jail. Why a girl would weaken on that will probably never be clear to me.

While María Valverde plays quite convincingly as a sheltered model student who suddenly discovers a whole new side to herself as a result of her feelings from Hugo, Mario Casas just wears too thick in many scenes. His bad-boy demeanor is so boldly portrayed that it's almost unintentionally hilarious. It may be that girls find this cute. But it's really negative, because in many scenes it completely distracts from the actually very good parts of the story. It would have been important to also make Hugo's good, lovable side more apparent to all viewers and not portray him as an arrogant greaseball in order to achieve the emotional impact at the end that the last act deserved.

As I said, these are all points that the intended target audience should be bothered by, but won't be. And so, despite all the criticism, it is guaranteed that a few tears will roll at the end and the anticipation for the sequel Ich steh auf Dich will increase immeasurably. If you want to see a sensitively staged romantic drama, you are definitely in the wrong place. But if you don't mind striking clichés and a very conventional dramaturgy, you'll get your money's worth with this nicely filmed and well-acted teen romance. And in this case then also applies: Worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: Since only a stream was available for the test, unfortunately, about the picture and sound quality at this point no rating can be given.

Extras: Also the bonus material could unfortunately not be sighted. Announced are a making of, a music video, a preview of the sequel Ich steh auf Dich and the trailer for the film.

Conclusion: Three Meters Above the Sky is a romantic teen drama that was so successful in theaters in Spain in 2010 that a sequel followed two years later. Dramaturgy and characters are overdrawn and seem arguably one-dimensional. But for girls who love Twilight romance and like to look past all the clichés and questionably drawn images of women at the sight of naked muscular boys' upper bodies, the whole thing is definitely a nice romance with some successful goosebump moments. Viewers over the age of 18, on the other hand, will hardly be able to make friends with this best-selling film adaptation. Nevertheless, there is a clear bottom line for the target audience: Recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp