‘Desire’ Puts Spin on ‘Fatal Attraction’

The flyer for UC Irvine’s Friday screening of “Law of Desire” exhumes “Fatal Attraction” when trying to describe Pedro Almodovar’s 1987 movie.

It’s a tough sell. “Law of Desire” does have a love-obsessed maniac at its core, just like the rabid “Fatal Attraction,” but there’s a huge difference.

The besotted loon is a gay man, played by Antonio Banderas, best known in the States as the innocent brother in “The Mambo Kings” and the guy Madonna lusted after in “Truth or Dare.”

That’s not the only exception. “Law of Desire,” the latest offering in UCI’s “Love the Whole World Round” series, is a comedy with hard-core intent. “Fatal Attraction” looked at romantic compulsion as a lovers’ house of horrors, but “Law of Desire” sees it as a fun house lined with goofy-creepy mirrors.

Almodovar’s style is customarily nonchalant, even in the opening scene, which can be shocking. A young man is ordered to slowly disrobe by a male voice off-camera. The commands get more explicit as both the man and the voice become further aroused.

The passage’s climax--vague, unsettling and close to pornographic despite the director’s dispassionate approach--has nothing to do with the movie’s plot, but it does help to define Almodovar’s point of view: that sex makes its own rules, and those rules may be at odds with mainstream society.

Almodovar is liberated by the idea and plunges recklessly ahead. Banderas’ Antonio first develops a crush on Pedro (Eusebio Poncela), a famous director of arty films (“Halitosis” is one) and the infatuation slithers toward something insane once the two start an affair.

Pedro hooks up with Antonio to dilute his absorption with Juan (Miguel Molina), his true love, a reluctant fellow with doubts about his own homosexuality. When not vexing over Juan, Pedro is trying to stage a production of Cocteau’s “Human Voice” starring his flamboyant, transsexual sister Tina (played by longtime Almodovar leading lady, Carmen Maura).

All this adds up to a comic stew of curious dependencies, emotions and lifestyles. At times, “Law of Desire” is so at ease with itself that you don’t realize everything is turning dangerous.

Antonio drops hints about his instability early on--Pedro has a right to be nervous when Antonio starts yapping about love all the time, even though the relationship has only lasted a week or two--and things escalate when he learns of Juan.

Antonio’s pursuit of both Pedro and Juan (he pursues Juan in a more murderous way) is dipped in black humor.

Anyone who was first introduced to Banderas in “The Mambo Kings” will probably be surprised by this role. For one thing, his sex scenes with Poncela are graphic. Another thing is the quiet strangeness he brings to the character. Antonio is a hybrid of fool, lunatic and predator, an unnerving combo to say the least.

* What: Pedro Almodovar’s “Law of Desire.”

* When: Friday, May 28, 7 and 9 p.m.

* Where: The UC Irvine Student Center, Crystal Cove Auditorium.

* Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (405) Freeway to Jamboree Road and head south to Campus Drive. Take Campus to Bridge Road into the campus.

* Wherewithal: $2 and $4.

* Where to call: (714) 856-6379.