Woman on Top (2000)

Woman on Top pretends to be your standard fish-out-of-water romantic comedy laced with touches of magic realism. When you break it down and look at its elements, however, it turns out to be different than most, which is good. Hot Spanish star Penélope Cruz (All About My Mother) plays Isabella Oliveira, a Brazilian chef who falls madly in love with, and marries, a dashing waiter (Murilo Benício). Throughout her life she's been a victim of motion sickness, and the only way she can overcome it is by being in control, whether it's driving or being on top during sex. Her husband starts to feel that as a threat to his Latin masculinity, and when he steps out on her, she catches him. She decides to leave Brazil and stop loving him, ending up in San Francisco with an old friend (Harold Perrineau Jr.), now a drag queen. There she meets a nice guy-television producer (Mark Feuerstein), who sets her up with her own cooking show. Normally in this kind of movie his character would be the perfect antidote for her heartbreak, but he ends up more seduced by the success of her cooking show than by her. When her husband shows up, she becomes trapped in a love triangle where both men are deeply flawed. Can she forgive her husband's infidelity and fall back in love with him? Forget the answer. The fact that the question is being asked separates Woman on Top from the other broad, romantic comedies that share its tone. Plus it's chock-full of seductive Brazilian music. --Andy Spletzer Amazon.com

Simple, yet satisfying

Fantastic Brazilian soundtrack on this lightweight romance comedy. Told like a folk tale, the movie's plot is silly but fun. Penelope Cruz is unbelievably cute. Not for women only. It's a great diversion and won't hurt your head. Watch it. September 9, 2008

A Creative and Intelligent Romp

Isabella, the lead character, played by Penelope Cruz, instructs her cooking students, "I will show you what inspires me in the hope you will find your own inspiration. Okay?

I think that to cook well, you must bring all your feelings and experience to the act of creation.

Let's start with my passion . . ."

This is a fun romp. The movie at times has a feeling of a light 1950s or 60s romantic comedy, intentionally overstated and overbroad. The actors consistently overact as if they were beamed forward in time from some bygone era.

A primary comic device in this film is that Isabella has severe motion sickness; and therefore, she cannot ride in a car, dance, or make love unless she is driving or leading. When she arrives in San Francisco, after leaving after watching her husband make love to another woman, she cannot take a taxi, but instead bribes the taxi driver so she can drive the taxi herself through San Franciscos steep and curvy streets.

Isabella is a chef who has been underappreciated. As the plot develops, Isabella ritually burns her old husband's photo and throws away all her connections to him. She gets her mojo back, and suddenly & ridiculously, hundreds of men start to pursue her. Once she gets on her own, she becomes a wildly successful cooking show host.

The husband finds Isabella and tries to reunite with her. He changes many of his domineering ways.

She says,"Why couldn't you have been like this before?"

"I don't know. But I'm like this now."

"Now is too late."

"Kiss me, then tell me that."

They kiss, but don't reunite. The question of whether they can reunite drives us forward in the story. And maybe even more key to the plot's resolution are the questions of: "Can their chemistry become remarkably creative again? Can their combinations cook again?" "Do their chemistries arouse the worlds around them again?"

The movie is about the importance of each individual determining their own path instead of deferring too much to the wants of any one culture, one lover, or one familiar. How the plot resolves is not really very important, except that Isabella chooses her own paths and becomes creative in activities and patterns better suited to her wants and the wants of her communities.

The movie is like Isabella's cooking advice at the end of each cooking instruction:

"And the last and most important ingredient is to share it with someone you love." August 30, 2007

Hot, Sizzling Chef on "Top" in Every Way

Penelope Cruz sizzles in her role as Isabella, a charming and seductive chef in a small Brazilian seaside resort called Bahia. She marries Toninho Oliveira (played by Murilo Benecio) who is a initially a waiter and later the owner of the restaurant where she wows the customers with her spicey and delicious original meals. They marry and are ecstatically happy ... except there is one problem: Isabella suffers from motion sickness and during their love-making she must be the one on top. This position eventually frustrates Toninho who makes one *fatal* mistake - he cheats on his wife, so he can once more be in a more dominant position. She discovers this major indiscretion and leaves him. She pays homage to the goddess of the sea in Bahia before leaving on her trip to the USA. She had received many offers of jobs as a chef in the USA and decided to move to San Francisco ... to try out her luck.

In San Francisco, she manages to find Monica, a childhood friend, who offers her a place to live. Monica it turns out is a cross-dressing male/ a drag queen ... There are flashback scenes to their childhood when growing up and the viewer discovers how Isabella developed her cooking skills and talent. In San Francisco, Isabella goes job hunting and is rejected by one of the 5 star restaurant managers who had given her so much praise when he visited in Bahia. She is however hired by a cooking school and becomes enormously popular. Her class is attended by a huge following and among them is a young television producer who is being pressured to create a new T.V. program for his network. He is enticed by Isabella's beauty and delicious food. He gets a brainstorm of an idea. He sells the network on creating a cooking program which stars Isabella and her hot and spicey creations ... Monica dresses Isabella in some sexy outfits which along with her spectacular dishes from Bahia becomes an instant success.

Meanwhile, Toninho is very lonely in Bahia. He is remorseful and deeply misses Isabella. He makes some offerings to the goddess of the sea , with the hope of reuniting with his wife. He flies to San Francisco then, by pure chance discovers his wife is the major star of a hugely popular TV cooking program. He serenades Isabella with a marvelous Brazilian band ...As luck would have it, she rebuffs his efforts. He pursues her to the studio, and along with the band, ends up providing background music for her program. The network executives consider cutting them out but soon learn, Toninho and the band create more magic and increase the program's ratings ... As executives often do, just when everything is going extremely well, they make an inane decision to change Isabella's cultural approach and tone down her television persona - with the goal of appealing to mainstream America.

It is quite an entertaining adventure to view how this major dilemma is resolved. Also, Cliff, the local TV producer is a rival for Isabella's affections, just when Toninho has resolved to do everything in his power to win back Isabella for himself. This film is pure fantasy and pure entertainment. It is a pleasure to watch. Penelope Cruz sparkles in her role. Murilo Benicio is a joy to view but his character is less well developed which is unusual given his popularity and extraordinairy acting ability. Mark Feurerstein plays a believable TV producer. Harrold Perrineau, Jr is an amusing cross-dressing drag queen and a good friend to Isabella ...Overall, the film is quite funny and finishes on a positive and satisfying note. Erika Borsos [pepper flower] August 15, 2007

Woman on Top

Excellent movie, Magical, a little fantastic at times but cute. Penelope Cruz is on fire. A great story line and a great cast of characters. August 5, 2007

Woman on Top

Charming little romantic "Magic Realism" tale with a mellow Brazillian soundtrack. Penelope Cruz was never more lovely. May 30, 2007

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