Gaudi Afternoon

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.