Y Tu Mama Tambien Review
by Jerry Saravia (faust668 AT aol DOT com)April 27th, 2002
Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN (2001)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
April 26th, 2002
RATING: Three stars
I walked into a theatre showing "Y Tu Mama Tambien" without any prior knowledge of what I was about to see. I was surprised to see a film not unlike what Hollywood would churn out if they made far more explicit teen comedy-dramas. That is not to say that "Y Tu Mama Tambien" ("And Your Mother Too") is standard fare as teen movies go (it has some degree of intelligence and is explicitly sexual in ways few movies are afraid to be) but it is not far from what you might expect either.
Set in Mexico, two horny, marijhuana-stoked teenagers, Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna), spend their days discussing sex, masturbating to thoughts of Salma Hayek, and who they would love to screw with, if only fleetingly. Their girlfriends have left to Europe for vacation, and now they have want to explore any woman of any race. At a wedding where the Mexican president is set to make an appearance, Julio and Tenoch attend and catch the eye of Luisa (Marible Verdu), a stunning beauty from Spain. They invite her to a beach called "Heaven's Mouth," never thinking she will come along considering she is married to a writer who is Tenoch's cousin. Surprisingly, Luisa accepts the invitation when she learns her husband is having an affair, and decides to chuck it all to hell. The three go on a long road trip to "Heaven's Mouth," not having any clue how to get there. Like most road movies, they get flat tires, meet colorful characters, get drunk and have sex with each other, leading to a surprise ending where we learn a character's secret.
"Y Tu Mama Tambien" is fairly conventional but there are some minor sparks that diffirentiate it from the norm. The amount of frank sexuality in it, not to mention the explicit words used to describe as such, may send Kevin Smith and others of his ilk reeling with envy. Every part of the male and female anatomy is mentioned time and again by the two teens and by Luisa. Despite such frankness in its road movie conventions, the film has a kinship with "Jules and Jim" and the underrated "Threesome." All three of these films deal with threesomes and the rack of guilt that coincides with such sexual highs and lows. The teenagers do not know better but they love Luisa for her body and nothing else...and yet by the end of the film, an honesty develops between all three that reminds them of their own humanity.
Unfortunately, "Y Tu Mama Tambien"'s coda did not sit well with me. I think the film works best as the menage a trois comic tale it wants to be, but then it heads for a serious road that seems too abrupt and tacked on to really believe. The film would have benefitted from more character development to deserve such a serious tonal shift. It's as if writer-director Alfonso Cuaron ("Great Expectations") felt he had to redeem the audience for exposing them to so much nudity, sex and marijuana.
"Y Tu Mama Tambien" is well-performed and well-directed to be sure, and there are quite a few laughs along the way, but its ending may lead you to believe you've seen something more than what precedes it. No creo.
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