La Mujer de Mi Hermano (My Brother's Wife)

A box-office sensation throughout Latin America, Ricardo de Montreuil's La Mujer de Mi Hermano (My Brother's Wife) is a purportedly "steamy" soap opera that rarely even gets warm. Despite the title, this tearful tale of infidelity isn't told from the perspective of Gonzalo (Manolo Cordona), a Mexico City artist who has an affair with Zoë (Barbara Mori), the beautiful wife of his brother Ignacio (Christian Meier). It's Zoë's movie, from the moment she eats 20 grapes for breakfast to the birth of her first child under the false pretense that Ignacio is the father. The rigidly prosaic telenovela-level story finds the sterile-in-every-sense wealthy businessman Ignacio only having sex with Zoë (a stunner in plunging necklines) on Saturdays (think of her as a really desperate housewife), so that when she reignites her dormant passion with Gonzalo, you're almost tempted to cheer. With its antiseptic interiors and loads of Catholic anguish about infidelity and abortion, La Mujer de Mi Hermano wants to be taken seriously as a marital drama, but it's simply too silly too often to succeed. Not recommended. (J. Shannon)