Apariencias

This is a film which mass audiences everywhere (well, if it were in English) would like. Its characters are all caricatures the masses can identify with; being the ubiquitous comedy work horses they all are.

The humor is funny, if outdated by most standards of Western Civilization (to which Argentina aspires to belong. It did belong in the 50s, and the mass mentality stayed in that decade too; a fact most of us South Americans, Argentines included, won't dispute). At times, many may actually enjoy the fact political correctness in popular comedies hasn't arrived here yet.

Nevertheless, by Argentine standards, which has never acknowledged gays, other than occasional references as demented anti-social outcasts, this comedy shows some progress is being made in the acceptance of minorities.

This comes albeit belatedly, and at still at least 20 years behind the rest of the world they "belong" to. This is no doubt, due to the country's geographical isolation, lack of non-European immigration (like in North America & Europe), and decades, if not centuries of military rule.

That said, the tag line is "to what extreme would a man go to conquer a woman." In case you are wondering, that extreme is (God forbid!) to pass himself off as gay. That "extreme" being worse than murder, you know what mentality to expect.

The love story is never believable anyway, the gay and elitist issues aside. But the film insists on the gay issue, and this becomes very annoying as every cliche' on the subject from 20 years ago is squeezed for laughs, and every gay character- a screaming queen.

That a brilliant, gorgeous upper-class girl would leave a masculine yet sensitive guy for a low-class screaming queen is quite hard to swallow. Additionally, the guy being dumped is also gorgeous and rich: he's heterosexual, AND he lives in LA! Now, the extreme obsession with anything American is another obnoxious fixture of the film; it is filled with American phrases used to snobbish affect.

So, we are forced to believe that an "apparent" (that's the title of the film)"puto" (the most used word in the film; literally male whore-very nasty word for gay) who is a lower middle class office nerd to boot is irresistible to the near perfect modern woman the film shows us. Preposterous!

This is made even more unlikely in "appearance"-obsessed Argentina by the princess-like lifestyle of the girl contrasting with the crass, working class roots of the male pretender. The mother of the "gay" boyfriend, by the way, sports the filthiest mouth in South America. Her dialogue, though in overkill mode, is one of the most enjoyable things about the movie. It is a veritable anthology of every profane word and expression in the Argentine "porteno" version of Spanish.

So, if you enjoy seeing a contemporary "mainstream" movie comedy with humor that is still (in 2001) chauvinistic, racist, sexist and elitist, this one won't disappoint. It is funny, if you belong to the right circles.

The story of a shy male "going as far as pretending to be gay" to be close to the woman he loves, because she confused him as one at the start of the relationship.

I guess that some writers could remake that exact same presmise and make it less homophobic. Maybe.

But even if you "forgive" the outdated blant homophobia of the jokes and tone of the film (which it has lines shaming the intolerance and homophobic reactions, showing that it was probably a product of its time more than intentionally hurtful), the other parts are still weak and outdated too.

The editing is 2000 tv quality, the dialogue stiff, the story under developed (even when it is the only story, because the movie doesn't have sub-plots) and the romance between the leads, their attraction non-existent, and the jokes not much more than insults and reactions to the "suddenly out of the closet" Carmelo (Suar, which was pretending of course). Some of those are funny, most aren't. So. Fail. Outdated fail.

The movie shows a new way to conquer a woman's heart. It is very funny for the viewers to see the many ways this timid and solitary man used to be recognized by the woman he loves. The gay issue is presented as usually, in an incorrect perspective but funny. It also presents the reality present in many Hispanic countries (specially in America) against homosexuality and it's followers.

I highly recommend this movie. It has very good performances and it has a new angle for a Romantic/Comedy movie.