Amor de hombre

Very well developed plot incorporating nice looking guys and the ubiquitous, ever-loving; ever-forgiving fag-hag! I did enjoy the Spanish dialog (though sometimes a bit too fast). A film that exemplifies the value of true friendship. Lovers come and go, but friends are always near to advise and console; for better or for worse.

I'll come right to the point: this movie endorses a relationship where a woman is at the beck and call of a histrionic drama queen of a gay man. She has no life and is always available to take care of the poor man who sleeps with lots of guys but falls in love with one that does him wrong. Neither of the characters develop or grow despite the illusion of a "sensitive loving friendship." Its not. Feminists will be furious with this characterization of the all giving "fag-hag" and the narcissistic and selfish gad-about gay man who takes advantage of her. Is this the way Spanish women are still brought up in Spain to pander to man's every whim? I thought this movie was going to expose how sick this relationship was but instead it created a illusory romantic happy ending, so I can't help but think the filmmaker was sentimentalizing and endorsing it. Not a good message for this day and age.

For one thing, I found the movie terrible verbose, dialog heavy. I was going crazy trying to read the sub-titles and watching the sexy stuff going on the screen at the same time. And in the end, I didn't feel much empathy towards either of the lead characters, especially the guy, who seemed one hell of a selfish pain in the ass to have as a friend. And it seemed weird having one single straight woman and every other character in the movie (including the one guy she's shown dating) turning out to be gay. In the final analysis, the best part of the movie was the birthday cake that was so lovingly baked during the titles - I drooled.

Kudos to everyone involved in this production. Spain's "amor de hombre" is depicted with great wit, style, humor and compassion. As usual, Andrea Occhipinti as the fickle lawyer Ramon stands out. Loles Leon as the ever hopeful, helpful and aptly named Esperanza is his perfect foil. Throughout the course of the film it becomes evident that even with a basic sexual incompatibility these two people genuinely care for each other so much that it is unlikely that each would ever find a better mate. The sequences where each tries to fix the other up with a lover are hilarious and touching. Even the most minor characters are well drawn including the lowlife Roberto who is such a disappointment to Ramon.

The Spanish dramatic sit-com, AMOR DE HOMBRE (Is translation necessary?) is a fresh and (for non-Spaniards) foreign take on what is becoming a deluge of "the perfect gay man as a girl's best friend" movies. To be objective, one must remember this movie was released before THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, and RELAX, IT'S JUST SEX (to mention but a few) and two years before Madonna and Rupert Everett started playing the story out in the "real" world, and on film next year. The plot of AMOR has just the right number of interesting (stereotypical can be interesting) characters, and believable situations (the gay caracters DO have sex lives) to make the movie work on comedic and dramatic levels. The unusual depiction of gay men as "normal" yuppies (doctors, lawyers and teachers; no hair dressers or designers here), who like straights, have lives of their own, lends crossover appeal to the arthouse crowd.