Woman on Top Review
by "Rose 'Bams' Cooper" (bams AT 3blackchicks DOT com)October 1st, 2000
'3BlackChicks Review...'
WOMAN ON TOP (2000)
Rated R; running time 83 minutes
Genre: Romantic Comedy
IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Details?0206420
Official site: http://www.womanontopmovie.com/
Written by: Paul Mayersberg
Directed by: Mike Hodges
Cast: Penelope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau Jr., Mark Feuerstein, John de Lancie
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000
Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamsontop.html
Hey, I'll admit it: the built-in double entendre of WOMAN ON TOP was more than enough to draw me to the theater to see it. That, and the chance to see the gorgeous Penelope Cruz [which leads me to an observation: how many straight men would you ever "hear" admit to how gorgeous a given *male* is, hmmm? But I digress.] strut her stuff alongside Mark Feuerstein (one of my favorite actors from ABC's ONCE AND AGAIN series) in a comedy, was all I needed to spend 83 minutes in a dark theater looking at a projection on the wall. It was enough to get me there; but would it be enough to hold my interest?
The Story (WARNING: **spoilers contained below**): Brazilian-born Isabella Oliveira (Penelope Cruz) has two great qualities: she's extremely beautiful, and she's a great cook - and one strike against her: debilitating motion sickness. It affects her to the point where she can't move at all unless she controls her movement; she has to drive, she has to dance lead, and during sex, she has to be the one on top.
This creates a problem with her equally beautiful husband, restaurateur and balladeer Toninho Oliveira (Murilo Benicio); a man's man who takes the credit for his successful restaurant while his chef wife does all the work in the background, Toninho just can't hack not being in control of every facet of Isabella's life, and rebels in the best way he knows how: he has a quickie with one of their neighbors.
Isabella, outraged, leaves Toninho and flies - with terrible motion sickness - to San Francisco, where she hooks up with her childhood friend Monica Jones (Harold Perrineau Jr.), who happens to be a transvestite [and thankfully, not a "tragic" one; Perrineau looked good as a woman, dayam!] After a wee struggle in looking for a job, Isabella gets a teaching gig in a local culinary school, which leads to her discovery by TV Producer Cliff Lloyd, who is as awe-struck as nearly every other man (and, woman) by Isabella's beauty as well as her cooking talents, as is Lloyd's boss, Alex Reeves (John de Lancie). But even as things go well for Isabella, she still finds herself missing one important thing: control.
The Upshot:
Let's go back to The Story for a minute, to the part where I said "Toninho just can't hack not being in control of every facet of Isabella's life" - because that's where my first problem with the beautifully-filmed and lead-casted WOMAN ON TOP begins: I didn't get that impression right off. Yes, the script did mention it here and there, and yes, from all the generalizations of Brazilian men and "their" women that I've ever heard, I could believe it; but precious little in the early bits of the movie, convinced me that it was such a Problem that it became unbearable to Isabella. In fact, I was surprised that events played themselves out as quickly as they did in this short (time-wise; long, story-wise) film; the audience was treated to many idyllically-romantic scenes of the two beautiful lovers doing what comes naturally to them, a couple quick glances of Isabella's Control Issues, then BAM!, her Control Issues (and his sudden need to be On Top himself) break them up. Uh...huh? Where'd that come from all of the sudden?
Problem two: we switch quickly to San Francisco, where we meet Monica "RuPaul with better makeup" Jones and swiftly learn, in the space of a sentence or two from Monica and Isabella in their bathtub scene (an interesting set-up, to be sure) of their Long-standing Childhood Friendship. These quick snippets - and the similarly speedy introduction of TV Producer Cliff Lloyd - seemed an afterthought, a way of identifying the characters without giving the audience a solid look at what they were made of. It felt rushed, as if the filmmaker was hurrying to get to a certain point in the movie, only to repeat that point over and over again. Which leads me to...
Problem three: the sense of deja vu. That is, the feeling that the movie constantly repeated itself; how irritating, then, that the film switched gears from being too little, too quickly, to being too much, too often. Hard to believe that in the space of only 83 minutes, a movie can Say what it had to Say, and still have, oh, a good 40 minutes of filler added. This part of WOMAN ON TOP was classic Lather, Rinse, Repeat: Isabella and Toninho Lovingly Gaze at each other, they embrace, they have a Misunderstanding; Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Isabella smells/tastes something that reminds her of Toninho, she remembers making love to him, she gets flustered and angry; Lather, Rinse, Repeat. Toninho pursues a reluctant Isabella, he sings love ballads to her (complete with travelling band), Monica says something Sassy; Lather, Rinse, Repeat. This happens ad nauseam throughout the movie, enough to give *me* motion sickness.
Three things that WOMAN ON TOP did have going for it, and that elevate it from the mundane straight-yellowlight rating, were the strong attractiveness of, and chemistry between, Cruz and Benicio; the funkiness of Perrineau's Monica Jones (save the broadness of the character, it was hard to remember at times that there was a *man* under all that!) until he...uh, she...eventually wore that Go Girl thing out; and the best, most non-commercial soundtrack I've heard in ages. Alas, these strengths were not enough to make this one-note film work its magic in the end; while there were pleasant moments scattered throughout, the moments didn't congeal into a satisfying whole.
The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith]:
[Or, to be more precise for this movie, the "Ethnic Factor"]
Another thing bothered me about this movie, though I'm not sure whether it should have; whether it was reasonable for me to expect to gain Cultural Understanding from a comedy about people who happen to be Brazilian simply because I'd never seen a comedy about Brazilians before. What bothered me here is that I came away feeling that the only thing I Learned about Brazilians is that they make great music and great food.
The most ironic thing about Isabella's Issue with the Network TV Suits' insistence on her show not being "so ethnic", is that the only thing that seemed at all ethnic about "Passion Food", was Monica's dress and Toninho's backup band. "Sexy as all get up"? Sure. But "ethnic"? Hmmm.
Bammer's Bottom Line:
I wavered on rating this film: part of me wanted to give WOMAN ON TOP an unabashed greenlight for its beautiful Brazilian music and its even more beautiful stars, Penelope Cruz and Murilo Benicio. My Greenlight, though, generally indicates that I'd pay to see a movie again - and I just don't think that's the case, here. Still, it's worth seeing once, if only to see Harold Perrineau Jr. outdo RuPaul's schtick. Man, whadda woman...
WOMAN ON TOP (rating: flashing yellowlight):
WOMAN ON TOP was teasingly Spicy, to be sure; but like many Hot things, its Heat alone wasn't enough to satisfy my appetite, and left my thirst unquenched. But I will be buying the soundtrack, sho'nuff.
Rose "Bams" Cooper /~\
Webchick and Editor, /','\ 3BlackChicks Review /','`'\
Movie Reviews With Flava! /',',','/`, Copyright Rose Cooper, 2000 `~-._'c /
EMAIL: [email protected] `\ ( http://www.3blackchicks.com/ /====\
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