Gaudi Afternoon

Don't look for this title at your local homogeneous family video chain. This sadly overlooked indy film by director Susan Seidelman is best found in an "alternative lifestyle" venue in the nearest large city.

Yes, there are (gasp!) lesbian and trans-gendered characters, but this film does not dwell on their minority status, nor does it minimize them into the caricatures we've come to associate with cinematic depictions of such persons. They're merely caught up in the mystery into which a lonely, embittered, female literary translator finds herself involved.

Revealing much more about the plot would be to water down the viewer's perspective of the unraveling mystery, but I can promise a very satisfying experience for fans of the genre. The only detriment might be toward the end, when things suddenly accelerate, as if the filmmakers realized they were running out of stock, the editors realized they were running overlong, or perhaps both.

And Susan Seidelman certainly does know how to get the best performance out of her locations. As "Desperately Seeking Susan" captures mid-80s lower Manhattan, and "Making Mr. Right" shows Miami at its best, so does "Gaudi Afternoon" display the intricacies of the Spanish city of Barcelona, and the Gaudi-designed apartment building from which it draws its title. Without Madonna sucking the life out of every scene she's in, and without the somewhat contrived plot that bothered science-conscious viewers of "Making Mr. Right," Seidelman finally succeeds in assembling a cast, plot and setting worthy of her talents.

Wonderfully, funny satire of gender bending with only a few slow parts when the screenwriter forgets we don't really need any serious moralizing in this kind of film.

Our plot has Judy Davis, as Cassandra, a sort of almost middle aged, expatriot writer living in Spain trying to finish her novel. She is hired by Frankie, a very sexy deserted wife, to track down her missing daughter because of her bilingual skills.

Things aren't exactly what they seem and we find that Frankie is actually the transsexual father of the missing child who is now living with her natural mother Ben, a lesbian, who is engaged in a 'menage a trois' with her bisexual lover Hamilton and 'their lover' April, wonderfully played by Juliette Lewis.

The confusion makes for some very funny lines that are so well played that the situation seems almost natural. The screenwriter goes somewhat adrift later on with some totally unnecessary reflections by Cassandra, who apparently has sexual identity problems of her own, but the film as a whole is just wonderfully refreshing when compared to most of today's "statement" films. Good soundtrack too.

I was curious to see this film because of Judy Davis and Marcia Gay Harden being in it. I was surprised, then, to see Lili Taylor and Juliette Lewis as well. The acting was admirable on all accounts and Judy Davis played a tough and curious literary woman translator that Davis was able to make likable despite the character being repressed and brittle.

The story worked up until near the end when things got a little ludicrous concerning people meeting up and then the child disappearing and it seemed weirdly frantic at some points. For the most part it was an enjoyable film with surprises now and then. I was quite surprised to learn after I looked up some information later about this film that it was directed by Susan Seidelman as I've liked her work in the past. It's good to know she still has a flair for creating films about women who are put in situations where they begin to questions their lives so far and the decisions they've made.

A pleasant Spanish comedy plenty of humor , amusement , emotion , twists and mayhem . It deals with a sympathetic translator called Cassandra (Judy Davis) who becomes involved into problems with a strange as well as outlandish group of American/Spanish people in Barcelona . Cassandra gets a call for help from a rare woman named Frankie (Marcia Gay Harden) who wishes she to encounter her hubby , so he can sign some important documents . Alone in a foreign city, Cassandra must resolve a family's darkest with unexpected consequences . Nothing Frankie says is true : the hubby results out to be a woman and the issue isn't legal documents but a child's custody . But Cassandra keeps at it , at first to earn her promised fee, and then to help stranger Frankie, then Frankie's ex, then the child . As her situation goes from bad to worse when she attempts to find out troubles . Along the way, this unusual woman frees herself to terminate a novel and re-establish a broken relationship.

Agreeable comedy full of good feeling , offbeat characters , haunting mood-pieces , fun scenes , a brief intrigue and sense of style but not totally satisfactory , including conventional pitfalls . Director Susan Seidelman returns to top form , with an intelligent and engaging script which uses amusing situations to give us an attractive comedy in a high sense and that kept me entertained for the almost 97 minutes runtime . Some situations are laugh out loud ridiculous and the story proceeds at a breakneck speed that never flags . The flick realized in Pedro Almodovar style was criticized by the notorious ¨Saturday Star¨ as : ¨a clever story , a brilliant cast , dazzling production design .. in short , a feat ¨. Nice though overacting by Judy Davis as Cassandra, a solitary as well as somewhat disconnected and bewildered writer in Barcelona , she has to find out the deepest secrets of an offbeat family before she can confront her own past . The main and support cast is pretty good such as the stylish Marcia Gay Harden , the tomboy Lili Taylor as Ben , Juliette Lewis as April , the showman Christopher Bowen as Hamilton , and the Spanish María Barranco , Pedro Almodavar's ordinary actress . It was funny, great actors and atmospheric soundtrack composed by recently deceased Bernando Bonezzi .

Colorful cinematography by Josep M. Civit showing splendidly the Barcelona scenarios , where is set the whole film . Josep M Civit is one of the best Spanish cameramen as he has demonstrated in "The Hidden Face" , ¨Shiver¨, ¨Warriors¨ , ¨The Absent" , ¨Asphalt¨ , ¨Anguish¨ and many others . The picture shows a large sightseeing from Barcelona such as La Pedrera , Casa Mila , Casa Calvet, Casa Batllo, Park Guell, The Palau Güell, Sagrada Familia, Cathedral, Ciutadella , and usual streets and slums , among others . The motion picture produced by great producer Andres Vicente Gomez was well directed by Susan Seidelman , though he overdoes the same premise . Susan Seidelman is an expert on comedies , she is a director and producer, especially known for Smithereens , She-devil , Making Mr. Right , Confessions of a Suburban Girl , Cookie , The Hot Flashes and his greatest hit ¨Desperately seeking Susan¨.

Somebody will have to explain to me why this movie hasn't gotten more recognition. It is an absolutely delightful, wacky comedy, easily the best thing Susan Seidelman has done since "Desparately Seeking Susan". Judy Davis is great as usual as the people-avoiding translator who gets involved in a very unique domestic squabble and Marcia Gay Harden, Lili Taylor and Juliette Lewis are wonderful as the dramatis personae in said squabble (which turns out to be much weirder than it first seems). Harden's curvy, campy Frankie is especially memorable. It's a great film that makes strong points about the unpredictable nature of love without preaching and setting it in the Gaudi-designed wonderland of Barcelona makes it even more special. If anybody in America had seen this movie, it would have gotten raves from a lot of film critics. Certainly it's funnier and warmer than 99% of the well-known romantic comedies that have played in the States lately.