Already successfully released in its native Spain last January and part of the Competition here in Karlovy Vary, Miguel Albaladejo’s Volando voy (My Quick Way Out) is a look at the life of 10-year-old Juan Carlos (Borja Navas), a boy with a mischievous face and a criminal record to match with over 150 entries, including multiple armed robberies, car thefts and even attempted murder. The most shocking part of the film is the fact that is based on a true story, which is also part of the reason it does not fully convince. The film wants to be both an action film and a morality tale rolled into one, but younger children will only envy Juan Carlos’ exploits (Albaladejo makes them look like harmless Spy Kids-style fun), while parents will probably look on in horror and pray for the fate of their own offspring.  

Between this scene and the next, however, El Pera has already forgotten everything about his oath, as he is out on his bike and the weather suddenly changes for the worse. He first threatens a poor passer-by with a knife in order to obtain a warm jacket, and when rain comes pouring down he steals a car so that can get home with his bike (which goes into the trunk) without getting wet. What emerges from these two scenes is that Juan Carlos is intensely selfish and does not care about others, but then aren’t all 10-year-olds (most of which grow up to become more or less respectable human beings)? Albaladejo, so successful in creating such full-bodied characters -- in more way than one -- in his previous film Cachorro (Bear Cub), fails to pinpoint what sets Juan Carlos apart from other rascals of his age.

The film’s final scenes with El Pera and star social worker Tio Alberto (Àlex Casanovas in a nice turn) are poignant and ring true, but before arriving at those, Albaladejo and Delgado seem more interested in giving us a run-off-the-mill amoral action film, complete with cartoon violence and the obligatory montage pieces set to pumping beats. Borja Navas, the young actor who makes his feature debut on the film as Juan Carlos, sometimes looks positively lost, which has probably more to do with the film's script and direction that with his acting abilities. The wonder of the real Juan Carlos is that he repented and mended his ways, not that he was able to enjoy everything that God has forbidden simply because he was a minor; the film gives us too much of the latter and not enough of the former to make for anything else but a mildy interesting true story.

This film was screened as part of the 2006 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Buy the DVD at: dvdGO.es.