LUMINARIAS
Reviewed by Harvey Karten New Latin Pictures Director: Jose Luis Valenzuela Writer: Evelina Fernandez, play by Evelina Fernandez Cast: Evelina Fernandez, Scott Bakula, Marta DuBois, Angela Moya, Dyana Ortelli, Seidy Lopez, Robert Beltran, Sal Lopez, Cheech Marin, Sab Shimono
There's nothing wrong with a sitcom, with its predictable, credibility-challenging plot, provided that the characters are vibrant and likeable and the writer's heart is in the right place. That's just the kind of TV-type comedy that "Luminarias" provides. Directed by Jose Luis Valenzuela, "Luminarias" had its birth as a staged play by the director's real-life wife, Evelina Fernandez, which the playwright--who radiates a spirited performance as its lead character--has successfully opened up for the big screen. Despite its mere one million-dollar budget," Luminarias" is the sort of picture that could make a grand showing in Latino communities throughout the U.S. and given its easy-listening format should draw a reasonable crossover audience as well.
Though the story bears some resemblance to Forest Whitaker's "Waiting To Exhale," which displayed Whitney Houston, Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Lela Rochon auspiciously despite that movie's redundant plot, Valenzuela's film deals with men who are not all jerks. What's more important, serious racial issues are discussed in some depth. While the characters in "Waiting to Exhale" are all black, this time we're treated to a Jesse-Jackson rainbow involving Koreans, Korean-Americans, Mexican-Americans, one Jewish-American, and one African-American, all jumbled together in an East Los Angeles nexus. The focus is on four well-to-do, professional Mexican-American women who get together regularly in an Angeleno restaurant known as Luminarias to discuss the men in their lives. They drink margueritas and tequilas, easing the way for the women to let it all hang out. We listen in on their jovial banter and serious arguments alike, absorbing an image of the affinities and antipathies of people we do not often get to see in the movie theaters: prosperous Latinas living in spacious housing, driving Mercedes and the like, and throwing lavish parties for their families and friends.
We quickly learn from their spirited restaurant banter that these women may be of the same professional class but their views on men and race diverge considerably. Andrea (Evelina Fernandez), a domestic relations lawyer in her forties, is herself getting divorced from her wayward husband Joe (Robert Beltran). She is particularly incensed that Joe is cavorting with an Anglo woman, furthering her own racist view that the only reason whites date Latinas is to feel superior. Despite her wealth, she admits to having a deeply felt rage. Her friend Sofia (Marta DuBois), on the other hand, is a therapist who believes in mixing in with the white society and has forsaken her old East Los Angeles neighborhood for the predominantly Anglo west side. Ironically, she is the only one of this gang of four to wind up with a Mexican man, a waiter named Pablo (Sal Lopez) who can barely speak English. In smaller roles Dyana Ortelli plays Irene, a flamboyant clothing designer who is ashamed of her transvestite brother (Geoffrey Rivas) and who has sworn off sex for the Lenten season, while Angela Moya performs in the role of Lilly, an artist who is dating a Korean man, Lu (Andrew C. Lim).
The one subplot that does not mesh with the buoyant tone of the rest of the story involves Cindy (Seidy Lopez), in a custody battle with the physically abusive ex-husband, Tony (Richard Coca). But as the hub of the story, Scott Bakula turns out a credible performance as Joseph, a lawyer who finds himself opposing Andrea in court. Drawn to his adversary, Joseph is at first rebuffed by Andrea not only because he is fighting against the interests of her client but more important because he is white and Jewish. Struggling with her own racist attitudes toward Anglos, Andrea is frank and cutting as she challenges Joseph to come up with the real reason he is interested in a woman who is not of his race and religion. As in most romantic comedies, their differences keep them apart until the movie's conclusion in which Valenzuela wraps up all the loose ends too conveniently for a tale which seeks to elevate itself above sit-comish fare.
The music is terrific though not intrusive and the upbeat tempo of this good-hearted and spirited comedy makes "Luminarias" easy to take as social commentary that deals with themes of identity, marriage and independence. This is one of those rare pictures that do not treat Spanish-speaking Americans as either gangsters or servants but as people who have prospered in a multi-cultural society that all too often patronizes and demeans even those non-whites who have lived in the U.S. for generations.
Rated R. Running time: 100 minutes. (C) 2000 by Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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