Gaudi Afternoon

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¨.

From the opening credits, a marvelous montage of organic elements rendered in a very Gaudi-esque style, I had a sense that this would be a quirky and fun film. I was not disappointed. If you have ever lived as an expatriate, you will immediately identify with the Judy Davis character. The terrific soundtrack captures the lure of Catalonia, especially the signature tune, "Sway (Quien Sera)" written by Norman Gimbel and Pablo Beltran Ruiz and sung by Dean Martin.

There is no nudity or sex in this film and the fact that the characters aren't hetero is only a plot device and is not otherwise significant. Surprisingly, Juliette Lewis is the weakest performer of the entire cast. Extremely enjoyable!

So you want a movie where a heterosexual woman gets inside a detective story set in a queer underworld, so to speak. She is not heavily shocked, but rather bemused, mostly, as the situations and the people she meet are not really very dangerous. If this sounds good, then I suppose this movie is for you, as it has some unusual characters, but it seems friendly to everyone, including the viewer. I found it funny and charming.

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.

I was surprised to see how much some people here disliked this movie. It's a nice little comedy with good performances, an engaging storyline and a nice pace. I notice a lot of the criticisms are from people who have a very definite idea of how such a movie should be made. Many are comparing it favorably or unfavorably with Almodovar's films, none of which I've seen, and some with the book, which I haven't read. Taken on its own, it's excellent, and Judy Davis is, as always, terrific (I feel in the same way critics want this movie to be a different movie, they want Davis to be a different character - one complained her hair was always a mess, which was sort of the point - but Davis is perfect for the character that the movie is portraying, even if she's not perfect for that movie some people feel should have been made instead).

It's also nice to enjoy something by Seidelman. She started so great and then got so awful that I gave up on her years ago and haven't even seen anything she's done in years except for one or two TV series episodes, but while this is no Smithereens (I don't think she's capable of ever doing that again) it's nearly as good as Desperately Seeking Susan. Perhaps success destroys Seidelman, and she can only make good movies when she's obscure.