Gaudi Afternoon

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.

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.

Terrific mystery story filmed in Barcelona, Spain, stars Judy Davis as an American loner who translates books. One day she meets a mysterious woman named Frankie (Marcia Gay Harden) who wants to hire her to find her husband. She can't speak Spanish (actually it's Catalan in Barcelona) and needs her help. She offers quick cash, so Davis takes the seemingly innocent job.

Instead, Davis finds herself caught up in a web of deception that includes the husband, a kid, a woman named April, and a magician. No one is what they seems to be.

Set against the spectacular and other-worldly architecture of Antoni Gaudi, the story delves into a shadowy world and teaches Davis a big lesson in,life.

As Cassandra the translator, Judy Davis brings her brittle edginess to the fore and creates a believable character who can't stop being intrigued by the bizarre people she meets. Marcia Gay Harden is a hoot as Frankie, and she's matched by Juliette Lewis as the hippie April, Lili Taylor as Ben, and Christopher Bowen as Hamilton the magician who lip syncs to Dean Martin's "Sway" in his nightclub act. Also Courtney Jines as the kid and Maria Barranco as the landlady.

Memorable film is a feast for the eyes and offers several excellent performances. Not to be missed.

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.