'My Mother Likes Women'
A family affair

MOST OF US like to think of ourselves as more hip to the times than our parents. Sisters Elvira (Leonor Watling), Sol (Silvia Abascal), and Gimena (Maria Pujalte) find it difficult, however, to keep their jaws off the floor when their mother, Sofia (Rosa Maria Sarda), introduces them to her new lover, a good-looking, sensitive, and nurturing concert pianist from the Czech Republic. This new companion should be perfect for Sofia, except that the person in question, Eliska (Eliska Sirova), is half her age, and according to Sofia's daughters, a gold-digging, conniving foreigner who's out to use and abuse Sofia to gain legal residency. And, it goes without saying, she's a woman. The sisters decide that the only reasonable thing to do is seduce the infiltrator in order to divide and conquer the seemingly blissful couple. So Sol leads Eliska on a half-clothed riverside rendezvous, and hysterical Elvira acclimates her neuroses to fit the present circumstances, undergoing her own sexual-identity crisis to make out a little with her mother's girl. The mostly female cast gives captivating performances all around, led by a very convincing Watling (Talk to Her). This Spanish comedy from writer-directors Ines Paris and Daniela Fejerman takes a standard, loving family and catapults it into our postmodern, label-defying times, where mama dearest can love women and well-meaning daughters can come out of therapy undamaged enough to be accepting. (Nickie Huang)