Woman on top - Amour, piments et bossa nova

I saw "Woman on top" yesterday and I found it very nice. It's a very funny story set first in Bahia (Brazil) and then in San Francisco, when Isabella (Penelope Cruz) became a TV star in a TV program about food. Penelope Cruz is very good in the role but it would be better if the role of Isabella was given to a brazilian actress (like for example Giovanna Antonelli, who would be perfect for the role), because a Spanish actress, even if she is good, who plays a sensual brazilian cook do not sound such well. Murilo Benicio (Toninho), one of the best brazilian young actors, is very good, very funny and so handsome and sexy! The story is very colorful and the music is beautiful, with many brazilian bossa nova hits like "Aquarela do Brasil" and "Vocè". The idea of Isabella having a best friend who is a drag queen is very good and also the idea of the TV program about the passion in brazilian cooking is excellent (and it remembers the role of the sensual cook Dona Flora played by Sonia Braga in "Dona Flor and her two husbands" by Bruno Barreto). If you want to feel the passion, the color, the music of Brazil, you have to watch this movie, even if, I repeat again, a brazilian actress would be better for the main role. I give it a 7.

In Brazil, Isabella (Penélope Cruz) suffered from motion sickness all her life. The sea goddess Yemanja compensated her with a passion for cooking. She falls for Toninho Oliveira and they get married. She dutifully worked in his restaurant despite the many admirers trying to lure her away. She finds staying in control by being on top would keep the motion sickness away. She catches Toninho with another woman and run off to San Francisco. She stays with her friend Monica Jones (Harold Perrineau) and TV producer Cliff Lloyd (Mark Feuerstein) falls head over heels for her. Her cooking literally knocks him off his feet. Her cooking show starts taking off and then Toninho shows up.

Cruz is incredibly lovely. She is luminescent. Neither guy measures up. Toninho is a womanizing Latino stereotype. Feuerstein is not a good leading man. Cliff has a bit of weasel and he's not worthy of her. The ending is horrible. Cruz simply glows and her character deserves better.

What an excellent name for a movie, no? I thought so too. Quite frankly the movie lives up to it's sexy name. Woman on top is not a hard core porn on Spice channel- but an intelligent whacky comedy with style and dare I say oomph!

Penelope Cruz , is almost as indecipherable as that human vocabulary dicer Salma Hayek, but unlike Hayek, Cruz can act. Clever facial expressions and quick delivery make the words seem improved instead of carefully studied and directed. Penelope also happens to be quite steamy on the retina. I'm no clam digger but if I was- she is one hot tamale female!

Story goes...Isabella (Cruz) has a terrible problem with motion sickness. She'd be all right if she just didn't have to move. This means no sex . Her husband Toninho ( a very studly "peacock" Murilo Benício by the way) is not emulsifying too well with that idea. He also happens to be a colossal prawn dick. So she takes of from the husband, sad and disillusioned she heads from Brazil to San Francisco. Land of Gay Rights, beautiful hillsides and fancy food lovers among other things. Did I mention Isabella can cook. I mean that in every sense of the word. Picture Emeril LaGasse only he's as handsome as Ralph Fiennes (or insert feel free to the man /woman of your fantasies). A good looking cook is a super sexy thing folks. Ahh, the good old fashioned combo of, cooking and sex. Needless to say, Isabella shortly has a run away hit tv show! It is appropriately named Passion Food! Viewers tune in to catch her grind and saute, bruise and skewer various foods in her own special way. But mostly to blatantly stare at her sexy physique and not for the night's nouvelle torte rustica recipe.

Hmm, out of her husband's frying pan and into 30 million viewers frying pans. Poor Isabella, will she ever find happiness?

Actress Penelope Cruz is going to be here to stay with American audiences, I'm sure. She's not new in the business-in case your wondering. Penny's just not mainstream yet. All you guys that are drooling over her- there's more she-steak coming your way- later this year she'll star in Blow (about cocaine), alongside Johnny "Blow? Dope? Ohhhh, I thought it was another thriller by the Fargo guys on weather or something when I signed- swear! Shoot" Depp.

Woman on Top's stories been done before, but this is a foreign film gone American. Think of Like Water for Chocolate- without all those pesky subtitles to get in the way. What's sexier than food and sex? Absafriginlutely nothing! Sure some parts are just plain middle- of- Texas- without- a- spare- tire- stupid, but the over all feel is sweet and delightfully rich like a nice slice of Strawberry New York Cheesecake. Mangia.

Snack recommendation: Brazilian fare with plenty of hot sauce on the side!

I've read some of the other comments on this film, and I'd agree with many of the criticisms. Yes, Hollywood. Yes, Foreign Film Lite. Yes, predictable plot. Yes, stereotypes here, there, everywhere. And it is not deep. This is a bit of a guilty pleasure, in my opinion. It's charming, with a fun, atmospheric soundtrack and some enjoyable performances. By the end of the movie I wanted to be dancing on a beach somewhere in Brazil. I'll forgive a lot of sins for a movie that makes me laugh reasonably often and has good visuals and music. If you like romance and fairy tales and fun and aren't in the mood for something penetrating or plausible, this would be a good one to check out. Penelope Cruz cannot help but be a movie star--she has a lot of charm in addition to her looks. Her husband character, Toninho, was very easy on the eyes. Their combined visual assault reminds me of the double-wattage Latin aesthetics of Catherine Zeta-Jones and Antonio Banderas in the Mask of Zorro--I enjoyed that film less than this one, actually. And her best friend, Monica the trannie, had a somewhat stereotypical gay supporting role, but was extremely funny--Harold Perrineau, Jr. made this his own.

WOMAN ON TOP is one of those films that was made, publicized and viewed as pastiche and because of its honesty as a simple romantic comedy, it rates higher than many of the over the top and overproduced competitors. The film is colorful, filled with wonderful Bossa Nova music, and has enough eye candy to almost make you forget the main dishes! Isabella Oliveira (Penélope Cruz) lives in Bahia, Brazil totally in love with Toninho Oliveira (Murilo Benício) where the two have a restaurant featuring Isabella's passionate cooking and Toninho's macho front man role. Isabella has a problem: motion sickness - she cannot fly, ride in a car, or assume the bottom position during sex or she becomes violently ill (it seems that the sea goddess compensated her problem by making her an inimitable chef). All is well until Toninho has a brief affair that drives the crushed Isabella to move to San Francisco alone despite her love for Toninho. There she moves in with her old friend Monica from Bahia (Harold Perrineau as a superbly enacted crossed dressed drag queen) and begins her unsuccessful search for a job. In order to overcome her longing for Toninho and regain her culinary skills she makes a pact with the sea goddess, forsaking ever loving Toninho again. Eventually Isabella lands a TV show on Passionate Cooking when desperate producer Cliff (Mark Feuerstein) gets a whiff of her talent. She is an immediate success. Meanwhile Toninho, unable to endure life in Bahia without Isabella, flies to San Francisco and begins a series of Bossa Nova serenades to win her back. Cliff places Toninho on Isabella's show as background music and the ratings soar. But it is the ultimately the conflict resolution between Isabella and Toninho that brings the story to its expected end.

The story may be light and the script may be pedestrian, but the direction and camera work suffuse this film with Latin American magical realism and that keeps it lighthearted and fun. Cruz is terrific, Perrineau is the true star of the show displaying a sophisticated and sensitive acting skill that is very special, and Murilo Benício is not only a hunk and eye candy but also a fine singer and a warm actor who deserves a lot of attention. Story five, stars six. Have fun with this one! Grady Harp, March 06