Cast: Penelope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau Jr., Mark Feuerstein, John de Lancie
Director: Fina Torres
Producer: Alan Poul
Screenplay: Vera Blasi
Cinematography: Thierry Arbogast
Music: Luis Bacalov
U.S. Distributor: Fox Searchlight
In Woman On Top, director Fina Torres takes three apparent can't-miss ingredients - sex, cooking, and magic realism - and combines them into a soufflé that collapses before it reaches the half-baked stage. Torres, whose previous outing was the quirky, fantastical Celestial Clockwork, is clearly aiming for the Like Water For Chocolate crowd, but she misses the mark by an astonishingly wide margin. Every step forward in this film seems to be defined by a miscalculation, with the overall effect being akin to sitting through an endurance trial.
The movie is supposed to be a love story, but the lack of any tangible chemistry between the leads hampers audience involvement from the beginning. Penelope Cruz, who plays Isabella, and Murilo Benicio, who plays her husband, Toninho, are both attractive individuals, but, despite a couple of sex scenes, they generate no heat. Their interaction is wooden and unconvincing; I never once believed that these two even liked each other, let alone were passionately in love. Part of the problem has to do with the way the film is constructed. When the story starts, these two are already married. In fact, Toninho's infidelity has caused Isabella to leave him. All of the "getting to know you" stuff is crammed into five minutes of perfunctory flashbacks. As a result, we never develop a stake in the relationship. Indeed, since Toninho is presented as a jerk, we have every reason to root for Isabella never to deal with him again. Torres and screenwriter Vera Blasi see things differently, however. They excuse Toninho's actions as typical of what men do and set up his eventual, inevitable reunion with Isabella as the film's payoff.
After fleeing her marriage to Toninho and her native Brazil, Isabella moves in with a transvestite friend, Monica (Harold Perrineau Jr.), in a San Francisco apartment. From there, the smell of her cooking attracts the attention of local TV producer Cliff Lloyd (Mark Feuerstein), who is looking for a show to put on at 7:30 pm. One meeting with Isabella is enough to convince him that she could be a big star. So he offers her a half-hour program called "Passion Food." She and her TV vehicle are instant sensations, gaining the attention of the station manager (John de Lancie), the network executives, and Toninho, who has followed his wife to America.
The movie unfolds predictably, with all of the plot contrivances one would expect from a genre film, but without any real romance or comedy. Tedium quickly sets in. Torres' attempts to lighten things up by injecting a little magical realism into the mix (flowers perk up when Isabella is around them; the aroma of her cooking acts like an aphrodisiac) are awkward and ineffective. And the growing realization that the film is going to end with Isabella back in Toninho's arms dries up whatever meager enjoyment isolated incidents might otherwise offer. Torres also seems uncertain about Woman On Top's message. As a statement for female independence, it is undermined by the ending, which argues that fulfillment can only come from being with a man, even if he is an unfaithful cad.
Cruz, who has developed an international reputation by appearing in such diverse offerings as All About My Mother, Open Your Eyes, and The Hi-Lo Country, is normally a delightful on-screen presence, but she comes across as lifeless and uncharismatic in Woman On Top. The camera loves her (as a character in the film notes), but there's nothing here beyond the flat, glossy image of a beautiful woman. If anything, Benicio (a Brazilian TV actor) is even less appealing. Of the supporting players, the only one to offer any respite from the film's unremitting monotony is Harold Perrineau Jr. (who played a similar part in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet). Monica may not be the most original character, but at least Perrineau adds a dash of spice to this otherwise bland mixture.
From time-to-time, skilled filmmakers have recognized the potentially sensual connection between food and eroticism, and have used it to infuse their movies with a multi-sensory vitality. When it works, it can make for a satisfying main course (witness the likes of Eat Drink Man Woman, the aforementioned Like Water For Chocolate, and Big Night). However, in a case like Woman On Top, where the director fails to excite the palate, it's just another failed element. On the art house circuit this fall, Woman On Top is likely to land with a thud on the bottom.
© 2000 James Berardinelli