Dying Beyond Their Means (Spanish: Murieron por encima de sus posibilidades) is a 2014 Spanish satirical comedy film written and directed by Isaki Lacuesta. It features an ensemble cast.
Plot
Upon being interned in a psychiatric hospital, five citizens whose lives were thwarted by economic crisis concoct a plan to kidnap the president of the Central Bank to get things back to the way they used to be.[1][2]
The film is an Alicorn Films, La Termita Films, Sentido Films, Versus Entertainment and La Panda de Morosos production.[8]
Release
The film premiered at the 62nd San Sebastián International Film Festival on 25 September 2014 in a non-competitive slot.[9] Distributed by Versus Entertainment,[2] it was released theatrically in Spain on 24 April 2015.
Reception
Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter welcomed the "commendably brave and wildly unexpected career curveball" by Lacuesta with the "cockeyed" comedy film, underscoring as a bottomline that the "tartly topical satire takes wobbly aim at easy targets".[10]
Pere Vall of Fotogramas rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, singling out its "central quintet, its tone swifts, and its mix of humor and pamphlet" as the best things about the film.[11]
Carlos Boyero of El País lamented that, with the film, he felt "directly assaulted by embarrassment, that ungrateful feeling of cringe".[12]
Sergio F. Pinilla of Cinemanía rated the film 4 out of 5 stars, writing that despite the astonished reaction of a part of the critics, "the experiment works" with Lacuesta's irreverent humor managing to [both] surprise and offend.[2]