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Serving up bland fare
[Photo: Fox Searchlight]
Woman on Top features Harold Perrineau Jr. as Monica and Penelope Cruz as Isabella. |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 21, 2000
A thin plot and misguided direction are to blame for this Hollywood attempt at being ethnic.
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A late scene in Fina Torres' romantic comedy Woman on Top offers a likely explanation of what went wrong with the movie.
By that time, moviegoers are probably smitten with Isabella (Penelope Cruz), a neglected wife who leaves Brazil to host a sexy TV cooking show in San Francisco. The program catches the attention of network executives, and a pilot show is recorded.
Things don't go well at the taping. Isabella's favorite hot peppers are replaced by Tabasco sauce because it's easier to find at the grocery store. Someone in charge gripes that the format is "too ethnic." Another wants Isabella's transvestite assistant dumped to avoid offending Middle America. Latin spice of any type is diluted by Anglo sensibilities, raising the question: What's the use?
Woman on Top must have gone through the same process at Fox Searchlight. Someone wanted to make a movie to capitalize on the whole Jennifer Lopez/Santana/Ricky Martin vibe. But they didn't want to make it "too ethnic."
Plot twists are abrupt and unremarkable, unlike the braided eccentricity of a film by Pedro Almodovar or Bigas Luna. Even the sexy parts in Woman on Top seem restrained by puritan ethic.
Cruz is undeniably appealing, not a perfect beauty but radiant nonetheless. It isn't her fault that Isabella's personality appears so plain. Vera Blasi's screenplay only requires her to react obviously to the next emotional high or low. Cruz is merely window dressing.
Murilo Benicio does a decent impression of Antonio Banderas as Isabella's philandering husband, Toninho. Why he cheats on Isabella remains as vague as why he follows her to the United States to reclaim her love.
Mark Feuerstein isn't seductive or clumsy enough to be called a rival for Isabella's affection, although Torres strains to declare him that. Romantic triangles matter only if all three sides are equal and connected. Benicio and Feuerstein don't even seem to be in the same movie.
Woman on Top has the lollipop colors and bossa nova beat needed to pass as a Latin film. Yet, it's constantly betrayed by a lack of passion and decadent fun that Almodovar or Luna might have invested in this story. It's just another example of American ingenuity absorbing, then corrupting, a foreign fascination, like tacos or the Macarena.
Woman on Top
- Grade: C
- Director: Fina Torres
- Cast: Penelope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau Jr., Mark Feuerstein, John de Lancie
- Screenplay: Vera Blasi
- Rating: R; profanity, sexual situations
- Running time: 90 min.
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