My Mother Likes Women

Thanks to Pedro Almodvar (Bad Education)  the wacky romantic comedy-drama has become a staple of contemporary Spanish cinema, but while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, the results rarely live up to the model. That's certainly the case with this nicely filmed but rather strident tale of a recently-divorced concert pianist whose three grown daughters conspire to sabotage her surprising new same-gender relationship with a young female Czech immigrant. Like many of Almodvar's films, My Mother Likes Women mixes melodramatic and farcical elements, but it comes across like a fourth-generation duplicate of an original--curiously pale and tired, while straining to seem vivacious and colorful. And while Rosa Maria Sarda gives a restrained, economical performance as the divorcJe embarking on a new life, the three sisters are played in overly broad, hectoring strokes, with top-billed Leonor Watling particularly irritating as the middle daughter, a high-strung would-be writer working at a small publishing house, who's recruited by the others to wreck their mother's romance by seducing her lover. The plan works entirely too well, and in the end the sisters regret what they've done--all in due time, of course, for a happily liberating outcome. My Mother Likes Women has some pleasant moments, but there's a strong undercurrent of mean-spiritedness that the ultimate message of acceptance and reconciliation doesn't fully expunge. Not recommended. (F. Swietek)