My Mother Likes Women (2002) User Reviews (14)

Witty, Funny and Highly Entertaining

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 12 December 2012]

In Madrid, the divorced middle-age pianist Sofía (Rosa Maria Sardà) discloses to her daughters Elvira (Leonor Watling), Gimena (María Pujalte) and Sol (Silvia Abascal) on the day of her birthday that she is in love with the talented Czechoslovak pianist Aliska (Eliska Sirová), who is twenty-years younger than she.

The bigoted sisters are shocked with the revelation and do not accept the idea that their mother is lesbian. Elvira is an insecure and neurotic young aspirant writer that has a lousy job in a publishing house; Sol is the singer of a rock band; and Gimena is married with a boy and has a troubled marriage with Raúl.

When they discover that her mother has lent all her savings to support the education of Aliska, they decide to seduce the girlfriend to make her leave their mother. But when Aliska returns to her country alone and their mother is very depressed, they need to try to revert the situation. Meanwhile the nervous Elvira meets the writer Miguel (Chisco Amado) and has a clumsy relationship with him.

"A Mi Madre le Gustan las Mujeres" is a witty, funny and highly entertaining comedy with a delightful story of prejudice against sexual preference. The unknown (in Brazil) Leonor Watling is simply fantastic in the role of an unstable end neurotic young woman.

There are memorable scenes, like Sol singing her song dedicated to her mother in a rock'n'roll concert; or Elvira having lunch with her boss and Miguel; or the groom kissing the bride in the wedding. In the end, I laughed a lot with this light-hearted dramatic comedy. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Minha Mãe Gosta de Mulher" ("My Mother Likes Woman")

Amusing, but artificial and unrealistic

[jrgirones · 5/10 · 20 May 2002]

Leonor Watling shows her great talent for the comedy genre in this amusing, weel-made film which fails in portraying the central conflict. The lesbian relationship between the mother's character (Rosa Maria Sarda, wonderful as always)and her lover is totally unbelievable and artificial - they don't even kiss each other during the whole film! - and that affects the credibility of it all. You'll sure have a good time, but it's a real pity that the directors didn't hold the central subject with more bravery than that.

good movie, contained some censorship

[lmlisalisa · 6/10 · 24 January 2007]

this movie is funny. there are many elements for various plots. the characters are enjoyable as well. the story is cute. but, it lacked strength for a lesbian movie. the relationship between the mother and her young girlfriend seems very much similar to that of the relationship with her daughters. there was no chemistry and no intimacy beyond hugs. yet, the daughters are caught in deep, romantic kisses and the beginnings of sex scenes with men throughout the film. it's quite unfortunate to me that a movie with the main theme of a romantic relationship between 2 women does not have the strength to show that beyond hugs. i believe that censoring took away from the worth of the movie.

You can do it -- Mama is gonna see to it!

[livewire-6 · 29 August 2004]

Sofia is the loving mother of three daughters, a concert pianist, and a lesbian -- in that order.

Her recent discovery of her lesbian sexuality, and her relationship with Eliska, an illegal alien from the Czech Republic, is almost incidental to the film. It is certainly presented in a very matter-of-fact way, taken for granted as entirely natural and acceptable. It is not milked for titillation or homophobic humor.

In fact, despite this movie's title and marketing, the fact that Sofia likes women is merely the plot device that sets things in motion and drives the action of the film. (It is also the subject of the very catchy and bouncy title song.)

The real message here is that Sofia is totally in charge of every facet of her life -- something her three daughters emphatically are not. This is especially true of the middle daughter, Elvira. She is the heroine of "My Mother Likes Women".

Where Sofia is a creative artist, Elvira doubts her ability and keeps her first novel hidden in a drawer. Where Sofia is a passionate lover, Elvira screws up every relationship with a man, including her shrink.

By the end, however, Elvira learns to stand up for herself and go after what she wants in life -- and the audience stands up and cheers.

lesbian films are funny (this film is funny)

[alxxxII · 7/10 · 21 January 2004]

Easy and good film, it's about love, not simply lesbian love: family love, male-female love, girl-girl love ... and sex? not at all (amusing film anyway). A well constructed comedy with a funny and beautiful Leonor Watling, great performance, without her the film will be less interesting, and the story is as I have said funny, see it and enjoy it.

Lighthearted romp for ladies

[=G= · 7/10 · 28 May 2005]

"My Mother Likes Women" is a subtitled Spanish comedy about what happens when a divorced middle aged Madrid mother introduces her three adult daughters to her new lover...a woman. Bemused at the mother's lesbian leanings the three daughters set about to cope with the situation which, of course, leads to a variety of contrived comic moments. Breezy, fun, bright, and well directed, this film is a showcase for Lenor Watling's worthy characterization of the middle daughter; the centerpiece of the film. "My Mother Likes Women" should appeal most to Watling fans, lesbians, females in general, and aficionados of Spanish cinema. Subtitle translations are below par. No nudity and should qualify for about a PG-13 rating for mature theme elements. (B)

The L word

[jotix100 · 6/10 · 11 June 2004]

As Spanish comedies go, this entry directed by Daniela Fejerman and Ines Paris, elicit only a few laughs. To be fair to these directors, everything coming from Spain suffer unfairly when compared with anything by the master of comedy from that country: Pedro Almodovar.

This film presents a situation that is a bit unusual, Sofia, the divorced mother of three young women has fallen in love with another woman. Horror of horrors, how could mother do that to the girls? Well, the daughters seem to forget their mother has been on her own for a while, and being of a certain age, she doesn't get a lot of men calling on her, or maybe she always was a lesbian trying to lead a so-called "normal" life in Spain.

Sofia's daughters are an egotistical lot. They all have a life of their own, yet, they decide, upon hearing from their mother's lips the truth of the situation, to get rid of her mother's interest. Eliska, the young lover, is put through the ringer because the daughters want to separate them in the worst way.

Leonor Watling's Elvira, is perhaps the best of the daughters. Rosa Maria Sarda, looks like a mother, not like a woman that has suddenly turned lesbian, at all. The rest of the players are adequate.

Not a lesbian film

[MooreaMaguire · 3/10 · 19 February 2006]

Having seen many films by and about lesbians, and having heard many real-life stories of how families deal with middle-aged women's first relationship with a woman, I recommend skipping A Mi Madre Le Gustan Las Mujeres. I laughed a few times, and there were a couple of sweet moments, but they hardly made it worth seeing. The conflict was all either unrealistic or reminiscent of scenes in hundreds of other movies. For its entertainment, the film relies on tired plot twists. The three daughters devise a plan, their plan backfires; they change their mind and devise a new plan that is the opposite of the first plan…

The only character development is that of the middle daughter, Elvira, who is pathetic, desperate, and annoying. The other characters are flat and recycled. Disappointingly, the characters of the mother and her girlfriend, which could have made for an interesting film, were completely undeveloped, which just perpetuates the invisibility of lesbianism in cinema. There are no sex scenes between women in the film; in fact, the mother and her girlfriend don't show any affection, yet we're supposed to believe they're in love with each other. I had to force myself to watch the entire film and not walk out of the theatre before it ended. Unfortunately, the ending was as predictable as the rest of the film.

Late Bloomers (a light comedy-drama), Lianna (Canadian, made in the 80s), Losing Chase (with Helen Mirren), and Aimee & Jaguar (a true story, set in Nazi Germany) are much better films depicting a mother acting on an attraction to another woman.

A Lighter Touch Than Almodovar: Leonor Watling Steals the Scenes!

[lawprof · 8/10 · 31 May 2004]

"My Mother Likes Women" is the story of a divorced Madrid concert pianist, Sofia (Rosa Maria Sarda), who stuns her three daughters with the announcement that she has a female live-in lover, a pianist twenty or more years her junior, Eliska (Eliska Sirova). Eliska is a talented Czech studying with Sofia. The two are clearly in love.

Sofia's daughters, alternating between trying to accept mom's relationship and being aghast at her taking up with a young woman - or ANY woman - are a handful. The oldest, Gimena (Maria Pujalte), is in a deteriorating marriage which she stays in for the sake of her young son. The youngest, Sol (Sylvia Abascal), is a sharp-tongued rock singer with multi-hued long hair. Most interesting - and really the center of directors Daniela Fejerman and Ines Paris's comedy/drama - is the middle daughter, Elvira, played with extraordinary range and zest by Leonor Watling.

The daughters concoct a harebrained scheme to break up their mother's relationship and send Eliska packing. The plan has only two serious flaws: conception and execution. The intended resolution falls prey to pratfalls and comedic miscalculations. At least for a while.

There really are two stories here, Sofia and her lover and the trio's interaction with them and the saga of screwball Elvira, an employee at a publishing house, who always manages to mess up and ruin any promising relationship. Deep in therapy with a somewhat seedy psychologist, she's trying to figure out why all her self-fulfilling prophecies of doom invariably come to dreadful fruition.

Complicating her life is her growing attraction to established (and very handsome) author Miguel (Chisco Amado) who's both drawn to the very beautiful Elvira and sent running off scared by her flighty, immature behavior.

Leonor Watling is terrific as a neurotic in full bloom. Her insight into her very counter-productive behavior grows believably as the story unfolds. Watling has that special ability to telegraph her emotions in effective and often captivating split-second shots - she reminds me very much of the better known French actress Audrey Tautou.

All the cast members are excellent but Watling steals this film.

There are some nice scenes of Prague and piano pieces by Bach, Schubert and Beethoven add to the aural attractiveness of the film.

Almodovar would have made these women more introspective and, surely, both bitingly cynical and more neurotic. Painfully neurotic. These women are too nice for the typical Almodovar flick. "My Mother Likes Women" presents complex characters in an appealing, not overly analyzed light.

Simply very enjoyable.

8/10

Spanish witty flavor

[torana · 8/10 · 5 July 2003]

This is a comedy that is best flavored in its original language. Subtitles do not give full credit to the Spanish clever dialog. This is a movie for everyone. Who would not go crazy if your mother do something assumed drastic and unexpected? The reactions of Sofia's daughters when encountered with her mother's new love are funny, then dramatic but finally leveled at the end. I laughted most of the film and the mixed audience at the theater was laughing loud too. I liked the film because it is original and funny. The acting of Leonor Watling is superb. Leonor plays Elvira, the middle daughter of Sofia. Elvira has a bag of insecurities but her sensibility is more keen than that of her sisters. She will join Sol and Gimena, her sisters, in plotting to ruin their mothers love affair with Eliska. Eliska is a talented foreign pianist about the age of Elvira. The unexpected situations created are well presented in the film. This is a wonderful comedy.

"Soul Food" meets "Kissing Jessica Stein" . . . In Spanish

[burkemancometh · 2 January 2003]

This movie was really not that bad. I saw this movie as part of my class for Spanish writing, and I was pleasantly surprised. Unless you're studying Spanish, you'd probably prefer this movie in subtitles, but that's okay. Even though a few things that were said in this movie that were funny flew over my head at times, whether it be that Spanish humor is different than American humor or that I just didn't keep track of all that was said, it was still rather funny.

The basic plot of the movie centers around a woman who is the middle child in a family consisting of a mother, a father, and three daughters, of which she is the middle daughter. The mother and father are divorced, and, as the literal translation of the title implies, the mother became a lesbian and began to live with a woman who is around the age of the woman that the plot centers around. The movie is basically about how this main woman, the middle child, copes with this change in her life, both on a family level and on her relationships with men.

In the aspect about this working-class woman questioning her sexuality, this movie is quite a bit like the recent "Kissing Jessica Stein". The family aspect of the movie is a lot like "Soul Food", although the mother in "Soul Food" wasn't a lesbian. Either way, this movie wasn't a rip-off of either of these movies. The movie was altogether very original, and it had a theme which was very universal. I think that any American that sees this movie will relate to it in some way. It does take place in modern-day Spain, but could easily take place in America or Great Britain, or anywhere else within reason.

There is one other thing. The funniest part of this movie is when the youngest daughter, who is in a rock band, sings a song about her mother being a lesbian. The reaction of her family in the audience is classic. I give this movie a 9/10.

Leonor Watling is wonderful!!

[vivabingcrosby · 8/10 · 15 March 2002]

This is a very interesting and original film with two great actresses: Rosa Maria Sardà and Leonor Watling; Leonor is very pretty and make a great performance like a girl with a lot of problems. All the film is for laugh, for enjoy....Good. (8/10)

Mamma likes girls, oh oh

[Chris Knipp · 20 July 2004]

My Mother Likes Women (A mi madre le gustan las mujeres) is a romantic comedy lacking the genius of Almodóvar but showing his influence in the madcap passions of the mostly female principals – the mother, Sofía (Rosa Maria Sardà), a pianist; her new young Czech pianist girlfriend or novia, Eliska (Eliska Sirová); and her three daughters, who all wind up with boyfriends in the course of their unsuccessful attempt to separate Eliska from mamá. Eliska does leave mamá, on her own, and returns to Prague (whence a brief musical travelogue à la Bollywood), and she leaves, moreover, with mamá's money, but she pays it back and returns to mamá, at the daughters' own prompting, once they realize how selfish they were being.

It's all about gently shocking bourgeois sensibilities, and it ends in the happy multiple couplings of classic comedy. The opening scene is only titillating if you're amused by the daughters' variously nervous or hysterical responses to the news that the new 'love' their mother has found is a girl. We're given an instant set of 'mujeres al borde di un ataque di nervios' -- only 'women on the verge of a nervous breakdown' may not be an accurate translation of Almodóvar's title: in Spain an 'attaque de nervios' seems to be more like a hissy fit. Amusement at female discomfort is mingled with sympathy for a 'situation' that is really, in any conventional family, pretty hard to swallow. Most of the action focuses not on the happy, if temporarily separated, female couple, but on daughters Elvira (Leonor Watling), Jimena (Maria Pujailte) and Sol (Silvia Abascal), and primarily on the most neurotic of the three, Elivira.

After several false starts due to self-sabotage, Elvira lands an appealingly slim and famous writer of fat novels. Sol, the rock singer daughter, who performs an embarrassing song exposing her mother's proclivities, lands Eliska's brother. The third, married daughter, Jimena, gets divorced from her unsympathetic husband and hooks up with a garden entrepreneur whose company name is 'Plántate,' a moniker that means 'plant yourself,' which I guess they all do, on the screen anyway. Jimena and Señor Plántate meet by the crude, but handy, method of their vehicles colliding in a Madrid street.

It would be tempting to say this whole movie is a car crash. But that would be unfair: however these two lady directors' cinematic efforts must suffer by comparison with the increasingly brilliant and surreally beautiful creations of Pedro Almodóvar, its tumultuous plot only occasionally falters. Ines París and Daniela Fejerman know something about neurotic women, and My Mother Likes Women entertains so long as you can keep up an interest in its largely contrived series of episodes. It has a pleasing cast, a sense of motion, and the bonus of some nice, not too schmaltzy classical piano music. But despite the hip premise of late-blooming maternal lesbianism, it's really utterly conventional and barely skin deep.

Not good not bad

[comuneros · 20 September 2002]

Not good, not bad. I have seen a lot of similar films and you forget it as soon as you have finished it. The happy end with the Leonor Watling's vendetta looks disappointed. Rosa Maria Sarda is as always expledid. I´ll give it 6/10