edgepedia

Arts and culture / Screen and stage / Film and television / Films and standalone screen works / Individual films by title and year / Comedy and romantic films (individual works) / Comedies of 2003 to 2004 / Titles 1 to L

General · Edgepedia5 min read

Cosas que Hacen que la Vida Valga la Pena

Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena (Things That Make Life Worth Living) is a 2004 Spanish romantic comedy directed by Manuel Gómez Pereira, starring Ana Belén and Eduard Fernández as two divorced middle-aged people who meet at an unemployment office and give each other a second chance at love.1 • 2 It won the Audience Award at the 8th Málaga Spanish Film Festival and received Goya Award nominations for Best Actor and Best Actress.3 • 4

Key factDetail
Director / countryManuel Gómez Pereira; Spain, production year 20041
Spanish release26 November 2004, with 140 copies1 • 5
Lead rolesAna Belén as Hortensia; Eduard Fernández as Jorge6
Supporting castJosé Sacristán (Juan), María Pujalte (Ángeles), Rosario Pardo (América)6
ScreenplayJoaquín Oristrell, Yolanda García Serrano, Carlos Molinero, and Luis Piedrahita2
Spanish box office€910,754.92 from 180,353 admissions1
HonorsPremio del Público, 8th Festival de Cine Español de Málaga; two Goya nominations (Best Actor, Best Actress)3 • 4

Spoilers

Plot

Hortensia (Ana Belén) is a bored, divorced office worker at an INEM employment office who has had no relationship since her husband left her for a younger woman. She centers her life on her son and her job and ignores the advice of her best friend América (Rosario Pardo), who urges her to live in the present.7 At the office she meets Jorge (Eduard Fernández), an unemployed man, separated, and an alcoholic coming out of a deep depression, who is convinced that fate has given him a second chance and sees in Hortensia the key to finding happiness.5 • 7

Around the central couple, the film builds an ensemble of entanglements among Jorge, Hortensia, her best friend, Hortensia's ex-husband, the new Chinese boyfriend of Jorge's ex-wife, Jorge's father, and Hortensia's son, which the official synopsis credits with supplying the story's acid humor.4 María Pujalte plays Ángeles, Jorge's ex-wife, and José Sacristán plays Juan, Jorge's father.6

Production and release

Gómez Pereira set aside a planned biblical project, El hijo enamorado, to shoot the film, which began principal photography in Madrid in June 2003 and ran for six weeks, with Ana Belén and Eduard Fernández heading the cast. It followed the commercial failure of his previous film, Desafinado (2001).8 The screenplay is credited to Joaquín Oristrell, Yolanda García Serrano, Carlos Molinero, and Luis Piedrahita, and it was the first of the director's films on which he did not himself take part in the writing.2 • 5 Production was by Bocaboca Producciones with producer César Benítez, with Juan Amorós as cinematographer and José Salcedo as editor.2

The release was delayed by nearly a year because of a postproduction problem, according to the producer, and the film finally opened in Spanish theaters on 26 November 2004 on 140 copies.5 The Spanish film registry (ICAA) records a runtime of 91 minutes and a classification of not recommended for audiences under 13; other listings give 86 to 90 minutes.1 • 9 The singer Pasión Vega performs the song that gives the film its title.5

Reception

At the box office the film earned €910,754.92 in Spain from 180,353 admissions.1 It won the Premio del Público at the 8th Festival de Cine Español de Málaga, held in May 2004, before its theatrical release.3 • 5 At the Goya Awards it received two nominations, for Best Actor (Eduard Fernández) and Best Actress (Ana Belén).4

Critical response. In El País, critic Casimiro Torreiro placed the film in the tradition of Italian comedy, noting that beneath the love story it also speaks of the unemployed, the queues at the employment office, and new Spaniards, and judged that Gómez Pereira had recovered the command of the comedy genre that had made his reputation.9 Alberto Bermejo of Diario El Mundo called it a suggestive proposal built from accumulated details evoking a recognizable reality.10 On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.0/10 from about 418 users, and FilmAffinity lists a user score of 5.6.6 • 10

Legacy

The film has remained available on Spanish streaming platforms, including Netflix and RTVE Play, where it was broadcast in 2024 in the Cine de siempre classics strand.11 The Málaga festival's Audience Award, which the film won, is now sponsored by El País as the Biznaga de Plata Premio del Público, and the film is regularly named among the award's past winners.12 A 2026 El País review noted that Islas was Ana Belén's first film in an absolute leading role since this one, twenty-one years earlier.13

References

  1. Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena, ICAA Film Database (file 79803)
  2. Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena, Cineuropa
  3. ICAA Film Data, awards record
  4. Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena, Premios Goya
  5. Gómez Pereira estrena 'Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena', El País (25 November 2004)
  6. Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena (2004), IMDb
  7. Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena, SensaCine
  8. Gómez Pereira vuelve con una comedia agridulce y optimista, El País (6 June 2003)
  9. Rehacer la vida, review by Casimiro Torreiro, El País (26 November 2004)
  10. Críticas profesionales de Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena, FilmAffinity
  11. Cosas que hacen que la vida valga la pena, RTVE Play
  12. EL PAÍS y la Cadena SER, colaboradores oficiales del Festival de Málaga, El País (14 March 2025)
  13. 'Islas': la rotundidad de Ana Belén, El País (27 February 2026)

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

© 2026 Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Embed a reference card.

Report an error

Cosas que Hacen que la Vida Valga la Pena

Pick at least one reason.