Air travel is a rather tedious affair, but not so when you’re in the hands of Pedro Almodóvar. The Spanish auteur, beloved for his feisty females and stylish melodramas like Talk to Her and Volver, has returned to the screwball comedy genre that marked his early filmography – and in extra-sexy fashion too!

Peninsula Flight 2459 is the setting for Almodóvar mile-high club, which also doubles as a stupendously unsubtle metaphor for the state of Spanish society. The cattle-class is drugged into a stupor, while those still compos mentis cavort about the first class cabin with bawdy abandon. There’s even a lip-synched musical interlude care of the titular track by the Pointer Sisters and the film’s boisterously gay flight attendants (Javier Camara, Raúl Arévalo and Carlos Areces).

Yet, frivolous fun aside – and to extend the metaphor – one ends up questioning the piloting of this film. Scenes of splashy camp are thoroughly amusing, but by mid- flight Almodóvar seemed to have flown off course. Had he created a bit more of a flap about Spanish society, then I’m So Excited

might have generated a genuine conversation alongside all the titillation. Instead Almodóvar focuses on...