Starring Leonor Watling, Rosa Maria Sarda. Written and directed by Daniela Fejerman, Ines Paris. (14A) 98 min. Opens June 18.
"No one ever died of having a lesbian mother," says a character in
this breezy Spanish comedy. Even though that may be true, the three
sisters in My Mother Likes Women have a tough time processing
the news that their long-divorced mother Sofia (Rosa Maria Sarda) has a
special lady friend named Eliska (Eliska Sirova). Their homophobia is
compounded by the feeling that Eliska is not right for Sofia -- she's a
Czech pianist in danger of being deported and, worse yet, not much
older than they are.
The most neurotic of the trio, Elvira
(Leonor Watling), reacts by asking her therapist whether her man
problems are the result of her own latent and heretofore undetected
lesbianism. The more conservative Gimena (Maria Pujalte) is nervous
about how this news will affect her husband and child. Sol (Silvia
Abascal), a flamboyant pop singer, initially makes light of the
situation but later divulges her real feelings at a concert attended by
the family. "I felt like committing suicide," she sings over an
incongruously peppy tune, "when she told me she had a woman licking her
belly." The song goes over great with the crowd, less so with the
relatives, and the sisters' growing mistrust of Eliska imperils the
relationship.
The presence of two stars of Pedro Almodóvar's films -- Watling was the comatose beauty in Talk to Her and Sarda appeared in All About My Mother -- raises expectations for something wilder than My Mother Likes Women
turns out to be. Instead, it's a very conventional comedy with a
premise that might've been considered risqué 20 years ago but is now
the stuff of even the most banal sitcoms.
Thankfully, filmmakers Daniela Fejerman and Ines Paris (a
screenwriting team making its directorial feature debut) keep the
proceedings so lively that the movie's timid treatment of the subject
seems like less of a liability. Watling also emerges from her
Talk to Her slumber as a comic actor with great skill and charm. It's a crush-worthy performance no matter what your sexual orientation.