Woman on Top Review
By Joe Lozito
The Joy of Looking
Spanish actress Penelope Cruz (All About My Mother) is beautiful. I mean, really attractive. Like, gorgeous. Okay, are you sick of that yet? Then you might not want to see Fina Torres' dreamily charming, but exceedingly light romantic comedy "Woman on Top".
Mr. Cruz literally lights up the screen as Isabella Oliveira, a woman who suffers from motion sickness, except when she's in control of the motion (hence the title), and possesses a supernatural culinary ability. Her husband and true love Toninho (a hunky Murilo Benicio) keeps her stifled in the kitchen of his restaurant while he sings to the patrons, until one day Isabella packs up and heads to San Francisco and the fish-out-of-water plot takes off, with predictable results.
Most of the scenes in the film follow the same basic pattern: Isabella is confronted with a problem, she furrows her brow adorably, Harold Perrineau Jr.'s transvestite sidekick makes an off-the-cuff remark, and Isabella gets better. Admittedly, Mr. Perrineau (HBO's Oz) makes a fine supporting player and grabs a hold of each one-liner with scene-stealing gusto. But the film drags from one formulaic punch line to another, with little substance to string it together and turning too often to pseudo-magical realism to propel the plot.
Without much else to hang the film on, director Torres relies on the ample charms of Ms. Cruz. A technique which almost succeeds. But even Ms. Cruz, with her pouty smile and endless supply of red sundresses, cannot sustain the film for its 90 minute running time.
"Woman on Top" has its heart in the right place, but the script, by first-timer Vera Blasi, mistakes quaint sweetness for dramatic subtext. Too often the characters and situations degenerate to sitcom level. Ms. Torres, borrowing more than just her lead actress from director Pedro Almodovar, keeps the pace brisk, the tone light and the camera on Ms. Cruz. That's almost enough to put "Woman" over the top.
