Queens

Reviewer: James van Maanen
Rating (out of 5): ****

[Note: See Van Maanen's entire Best Gay Films on DVD 2006 list, now up on GreenCine.]

You've got to give Spanish director Manuel Gomez-Pereira credit (or maybe blame) for beginning his movie Queens with the most obvious and laborious few minutes you're likely to watch all year. No matter. Slowly and delightfully he and his oft-times writer Yolanda Serrano wrap you up in this story of a multiple gay wedding ceremony during the year that Spain -- still a Catholic country, so far as I know -- made such a thing legal. As different and amusing as are the several gay grooms (the "butch-est" of whom is played by Daniel Hendler, star of Daniel Burman's popular Argentine movies), it is really the young men's parents who interest the moviemakers most, and rightly so. None of them really approve of their offspring's sexuality or marital plans, and so we watch -- surprised, amused and occasionally moved -- as the "old folk" learn some lessons. Fortunately, the teaching route that Gomez-Pereira and Serrano choose to travel is full of twists that, more often than not, stand stereotypes wittily on their heads.

You may worry that this will be one of those far too numerous gay films in which everyone dances happily at the finale. No such luck, and the movie's all the better for it. Its very title--"Queens"--connotes, of course, gay men. In reality, it refers equally to its four leading ladies, longtime divas of Spanish cinema: Carmen Maura (from various Almodovar film and the wonderfully dark, little-seen "Lisboa"), Verónica Forqué (Sin Verguenza, What Have I Done to Deserve This?), Marisa Paredes and Mercedes Sampietro. The moviemakers allow each actress to capitalize on what she does best, while making jolly sport of her at the same time. All four women play along marvelously and end up trumping themselves, each other and the movie, too.

The writer and director also permit such things as class and politics to rear their ugly heads, which results in even more fun, making the experience richer and more pointed than you'll get in any American-made gay-themed comedy. Since the welcome fall of Franco, the Spanish keep pushing the envelope in so many ways, simultaneously creating movies to amuse, challenge and enrich the world. A nice bonus: Cuban heartthrob Jorge Perugorria makes a welcome appearance here -- seemingly getting younger and sexier with each passing year.