A pleasant Spanish comedy plenty of humor , amusement , emotion , twists and mayhem . It deals with a sympathetic translator called Cassandra (Judy Davis) who becomes involved into problems with a strange as well as outlandish group of American/Spanish people in Barcelona . Cassandra gets a call for help from a rare woman named Frankie (Marcia Gay Harden) who wishes she to encounter her hubby , so he can sign some important documents . Alone in a foreign city, Cassandra must resolve a family's darkest with unexpected consequences . Nothing Frankie says is true : the hubby results out to be a woman and the issue isn't legal documents but a child's custody . But Cassandra keeps at it , at first to earn her promised fee, and then to help stranger Frankie, then Frankie's ex, then the child . As her situation goes from bad to worse when she attempts to find out troubles . Along the way, this unusual woman frees herself to terminate a novel and re-establish a broken relationship.
Agreeable comedy full of good feeling , offbeat characters , haunting mood-pieces , fun scenes , a brief intrigue and sense of style but not totally satisfactory , including conventional pitfalls . Director Susan Seidelman returns to top form , with an intelligent and engaging script which uses amusing situations to give us an attractive comedy in a high sense and that kept me entertained for the almost 97 minutes runtime . Some situations are laugh out loud ridiculous and the story proceeds at a breakneck speed that never flags . The flick realized in Pedro Almodovar style was criticized by the notorious ¨Saturday Star¨ as : ¨a clever story , a brilliant cast , dazzling production design .. in short , a feat ¨. Nice though overacting by Judy Davis as Cassandra, a solitary as well as somewhat disconnected and bewildered writer in Barcelona , she has to find out the deepest secrets of an offbeat family before she can confront her own past . The main and support cast is pretty good such as the stylish Marcia Gay Harden , the tomboy Lili Taylor as Ben , Juliette Lewis as April , the showman Christopher Bowen as Hamilton , and the Spanish María Barranco , Pedro Almodavar's ordinary actress . It was funny, great actors and atmospheric soundtrack composed by recently deceased Bernando Bonezzi .
Colorful cinematography by Josep M. Civit showing splendidly the Barcelona scenarios , where is set the whole film . Josep M Civit is one of the best Spanish cameramen as he has demonstrated in "The Hidden Face" , ¨Shiver¨, ¨Warriors¨ , ¨The Absent" , ¨Asphalt¨ , ¨Anguish¨ and many others . The picture shows a large sightseeing from Barcelona such as La Pedrera , Casa Mila , Casa Calvet, Casa Batllo, Park Guell, The Palau Güell, Sagrada Familia, Cathedral, Ciutadella , and usual streets and slums , among others . The motion picture produced by great producer Andres Vicente Gomez was well directed by Susan Seidelman , though he overdoes the same premise . Susan Seidelman is an expert on comedies , she is a director and producer, especially known for Smithereens , She-devil , Making Mr. Right , Confessions of a Suburban Girl , Cookie , The Hot Flashes and his greatest hit ¨Desperately seeking Susan¨.
