REEL CRITIC

It’s a minor film, but it’s fun. “Woman on Top” toys with ancient

Brazilian voodoo and curses but deftly and with tongue in cheek.

It has the prerequisite beautiful heroine and handsome swain, mixed

with a transvestite who will blow your mind as you succumb to his/her

moxie and very real charm. The story line and its resolution are

predictable, but viewers will find themselves interested in how the

characters are going to get there.

The plot may spring from a romantic vein milked by authors for eons,

but the people who made this film don’t take it too seriously and carry

you pleasantly along with a good, if limited in scope, script, amusing

situations and some well-placed laughs.

The story opens in Bahia, a seacoast town in Brazil. Isabella

(Penelope Cruz), the daughter of well-to-do parents, grows up with a

disability that interferes with some actions and activities accepted as

normal. One example: She can drive a car but cannot ride in it as a

passenger. And without her volition, she quite literally gets so upset

she throws up.

These phobias restrict her activities as she matures, but she spends a

lot of time in the kitchen with the family cook. By the time she is a

young woman, she has become a fine chef.

Enter Toninho (Murilo Benicio), who owns a restaurant. The two fall

madly in love and marry. With Isabella as chef, the restaurant becomes

such a success that restaurateurs from America (and other places) leave

her a card and tell her they would love to have her in their

establishment.

But Isabella and Toninho don’t live happily ever after, and this is

where the raunchy title comes in. One of Isabella’s phobias has to do

with making love. It should be stated here that there are only two

reasonably short scenes--one early, one late--about this problem, but

they are minor in the overall context.

After three years, Toninho rebels and cheats on Isabella. She

discovers this, is heartbroken and takes off for San Francisco.

Meanwhile, a curse has been put on the sea in the vicinity of Bahia.

All the fish disappear and the restaurant closes. Toninho, as heartbroken

as his wife, finds out where she is and goes after her. She, meanwhile,

has become the star--and a ravishing one--of her own local cooking show.

The screenplay, written by a woman, Vera Blasi, has some deft but not

too obvious references to a woman’s place in today’s world, some sly jabs

at the way network moguls think and mild swipes at the human comedy in

general. It is not a scintillating piece of work, but it shows

perceptiveness and sensitivity about people that augurs something

stronger may come from Blasi.

The cast does this slender effort proud. Cruz is not only beautiful

but an intelligent actress, with a warmth that is beguiling. She could

become a major star, providing the powers-that-be in Hollywood don’t

discount her because her sculptured face, beautiful eyes and personality

remind one of Sandra Bullock.

Playing nice, young producer Cliff Lloyd, Mark Feuerstein develops a

wholesome, and somewhat unexpected, male maturity in his role.

And Benicio, who sings well and is handsome even if unshaven, could

become the next teenage heartthrob, which I think is what the filmmakers

had in mind when they titled the picture to appeal to the targeted

testosterone-hyped moviegoer.

The settings are familiar, somewhat poetic and, in a number of

instances, exquisitely executed by cinematographer Thierry Arbogast.

Whatever “Woman on Top” may lack in originality, it makes up for in

acting, pacing, editing, music and production values.

Despite its truly dreadful title, the film offers an enjoyable couple

of hours in the theater and a lingering feeling of pleasure.

o7 “Woman on Top” is rated R for some strong sexuality and language.

f7

* ELEANORE HUMPHREY, “over 65,” lives in Costa Mesa and is a

self-proclaimed political junkie involved with several city committees.