Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas (1999)

Broad Meetings

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas on DVD.

This overcooked Mexican film unsuccessfully tries to balance heavy, hysterical drama with broad, drawing-room comedy, but it succeeds only in inducing headaches. It concerns three men and three women with relationship troubles; when two couples break up because of cheating with the fifth and sixth people, the men move to one apartment and the women to the other. Of course, they can see each other across the street. The dialogue consists mostly of high-minded speeches that are supposed to be either funny or motivating, and writer/director Antonio Serrano gives us only patchwork characters. One man is too into his writing to pay attention to his sexy wife. Another man is too shallow, etc. All this high-pitched nonsense hurled at your head for 108 minutes is a serious trial.

In addition, Fox Home Video has released two other titles in their 2004 Cinema Latino series. In Vivir Mata, a visual artist (Daniel Ginemez Cacho) and a radio show host (Susana Zabaleta) meet and spend a day together lying to each other and falling in love. Nicolas Echevarria directs. And in Fernando Sariñana's El Segundo Aire (a.k.a. "A Second Chance"), a thirtysomething college professor is tempted away from her football-loving husband by a handsome environmental activist.

Starring: Susana Zabaleta, Demian Bichir, Victor Hugo Martin, Cecilia Suarez, Jorge Salinas, Monica Dionne
Written by: Antonio Serrano
Directed by: Antonio Serrano
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, language and some drug use
Language: Spanish with English subtitles
Running Time: 108 minutes
Date: November 9, 2004