My Mother Likes Women (review)

The charming Leonor Watling's turn as a neurotic wannabe writer saves this exercise in Almodóvarian family dynamics from deflating too early, but even she's not enough to save the entire film from an uncomfortable combination of self-importance and too-airy casualness. When divorced Madrid pianist Sofía (Rosa María Sardà) announces to her three grown daughters that she's in love with another woman, a Czech immigrant (Eliska Sirová) young enough to be another daughter, their reactions are diverse but predictable, with meek, insecure Elvira (Watling) using it as a springboard to finally figuring out what she wants out of life for herself. Unfortunately, her sisters (Silvia Abascal and María Pujalte) decide this should involve a scheme to run their mom's new girlfriend -- whom they suspect is merely playing Mom for a fool -- out of town. Inés París and Daniela Fejerman's romantic dramedy wants to be all mature and relaxed about sex and the mother-daughter relationship, but it nevertheless succumbs to overt cutesiness in the end, everything wrapping up all neat and pat like every other romantic dramedy you've ever seen.