A mother’s happiness is a threat

“My Mother Likes Women,” a literal translation from the Spanish, is hardly a subtle title, and neither is first-time writers-directors Ines Paris and Daniela Fejerman’s tedious would-be comedy about three sisters who go into a tizzy when their long-separated middle-aged mother falls in love with a woman.

The elegant Sofia (the estimable Rosa Maria Sarda), a Madrid concert pianist, joyfully introduces Eliska (Eliska Sirova), a beautiful young Czech, a concert pianist, to her daughters Elvira (Leonor Watling), Jimena (Maria Pujalte) and Sol (Silvia Abascal), all of whom consider themselves sophisticates. Yet Elvira and Jimena, both unhappy women, are deeply threatened by their mother’s happiness, and Sol simply follows the dictates of her older sisters. In an instant the sisters’ reaction to their mother’s romance unleashes a destructively fierce homophobia.

Sofia’s affair serves primarily as a device to set in motion Elvira’s struggle to find elusive happiness. She is one of those self-absorbed movie characters whose bad behavior the filmmakers ask viewers to find forgivable and charming no matter what. Such filmmakers believe all a character like Elvira has to do is smile.

As played by Watling, a nonstop mugger, with a heavy-handed desperation, Elvira is about as appealing as Medusa. A would-be novelist who has a lousy job with a cheapskate publisher (Alex Angulo), Elvira is attracted to a new client Miguel (Chisco Amado), but she first insults him and then throws herself at him. Her erratic behavior swiftly escalates, infuriating him, but Miguel remains inexplicably intrigued, defying all credibility.

Even though Miguel has captured Elvira’s attention she does not let him distract her from her determination to break up her mother’s romance, eagerly abetted by Jimena, who is in the throes of a disintegrating marriage. Not surprisingly, the sisters eventually see the errors of their ways, but Elvira is never shown owning up to the lies she told her mother. “My Mother Likes Women” simply rushes on toward a wholly unearned happy ending.

The film and its star, Watling, could not be more off-putting, and Pujalte’s Jimena and Abascal’s Sol are charmless as well. Sarda holds on to her dignity, and the exquisite Sirova is the film’s only wholly appealing, full-dimensioned presence.

The attempt to find humor in mean-spiritedness is way beyond Paris and Fejerman’s abilities, and their last-reel attempt to portray Sofia as an ultimately liberating force for her daughters is as contrived as “My Mother Likes Women” is repellent.

*

‘My Mother Likes Women’

MPAA rating: Unrated

Times guidelines: Adult themes, some sexuality, language.

Leonor Watling...Elvira

Rosa Maria Sarda...Sofia

Maria Pujalte...Jimena

Silvia Abascal...Sol

Eliska Sirova...Eliska

A Norador Productions release. Writers-directors Ines Paris and Daniela Fejerman. Executive producer Beatriz de la Gandara. Cinematographer David Omedes. Editor Fidel Collados. Music Juan Bardem. Costumes Vicente Ruiz. Art director Soledad Sesena. In Spanish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Exclusively at the Fairfax Cinemas, 7907 Beverly Blvd. (at Fairfax Ave.), (323) 655-4010; the Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 844-6500; and the University 6, Campus Drive, across from UC Irvine, (949) 854-8818.