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Woman On Top [1999]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Woman on Top pretends to be your standard fish-out-of-water romantic comedy laced with touches of magic realism. However, when you break it down and look at its elements, it turns out to be slightly different. Hot Spanish star Penélope Cruz (All About My Mother) plays Isabella Oliveira, a Brazilian chef who falls madly in love with, and marries, a dashing waiter (Murilo Benício). Throughout her life she's been a victim of motion sickness, and the only way she can overcome it is by being in control, whether it's driving or being on top during sex. Her husband starts to feel that as a threat to his Latin masculinity, and when he steps out on her, she catches him. She decides to leave Brazil and stop loving him, ending up in San Francisco with an old friend (Harold Perrineau Jr), now a drag queen. There she meets a nice guy-television producer (Mark Feuerstein), who sets her up with her own cooking show. Normally in this kind of movie his character would be the perfect antidote for her heartbreak, but he ends up more seduced by the success of her cooking show than by her. When her husband shows up, she becomes trapped in a love triangle where both men are deeply flawed. Can she forgive her husband's infidelity and fall back in love with him? Forget the answer. The fact that the question is being asked separates Woman on Top from the other broad, romantic comedies that share its tone. Plus it's chock-full of seductive Brazilian music. --Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com

Editorial
Special Features

2.35 Wide Screen
16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
DVD 9
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
2 Trailers
3 TV Spots
Czech\Danish\Finnish\Hebrew\Hungarian\Icelandic\Norwegian\Polish\Portuguese\Swedish

Editorial
Synopsis

Director Fina Torres presents a sweet and sour love story/fairy tale with WOMAN ON TOP, the quirky story of Isabella (Penelope Cruz) a top-notch chef and glowing beauty who suffers from motion sickness. Playing up all of these characteristics, the film explores two of Cruz's love affairs: one with a restaurant-owner, and the other with the television producer of a cooking program. A captivating, sometimes hilarious story, WOMAN ON TOP is a romantic and fun film with a lively Brazilian spirit.

Hot Sizzlin' Chef "onTop" in Every Way
Review date: 2008-02-02 Rating: 8 out of 10

Penelope Cruz sizzles in her role as Isabella, a charming and seductive chef in a small Brazilian seaside resort called Bahia. She marries Toninho Oliveira (played by Murilo Benecio) who is a initially a waiter and later the owner of the restaurant where she wows the customers with her spicey and delicious original meals. They marry and are ecstatically happy ... except there is one problem: Isabella suffers from motion sickness and during their love-making she must be the one on top. This position eventually frustrates Toninho who makes one *fatal* mistake - he cheats on his wife, so he can once more be in a more dominant position. She discovers this major indiscretion and leaves him. She pays homage to the goddess of the sea in Bahia before leaving on her trip to the USA. She had received many offers of jobs as a chef in the USA and decided to move to San Francisco ... to try out her luck.

In San Francisco, she manages to find Monica, a childhood friend, who offers her a place to live. Monica it turns out is a cross-dressing male/ a drag queen ... There are flashback scenes to their childhood when growing up and the viewer discovers how Isabella developed her cooking skills and talent. In San Francisco, Isabella goes job hunting and is rejected by one of the 5 star restaurant managers who had given her so much praise when he visited in Bahia. She is however hired by a cooking school and becomes enormously popular. Her class is attended by a huge following and among them is a young television producer who is being pressured to create a new T.V. program for his network. He is enticed by Isabella's beauty and delicious food. He gets a brainstorm of an idea. He sells the network on creating a cooking program which stars Isabella and her hot and spicey creations ... Monica dresses Isabella in some sexy outfits which along with her spectacular dishes from Bahia becomes an instant success.

Meanwhile, Toninho is very lonely in Bahia. He is remorseful and deeply misses Isabella. He makes some offerings to the goddess of the sea , with the hope of reuniting with his wife. He flies to San Francisco then, by pure chance discovers his wife is the major star of a hugely popular TV cooking program. He serenades Isabella with a marvelous Brazilian band ...As luck would have it, she rebuffs his efforts. He pursues her to the studio, and along with the band, ends up providing background music for her program. The network executives consider cutting them out but soon learn, Toninho and the band create more magic and increase the program's ratings ... As executives often do, just when everything is going extremely well, they make an inane decision to change Isabella's cultural approach and tone down her television persona - with the goal of appealing to mainstream America.

It is quite an entertaining adventure to view how this major dilemma is resolved. Also, Cliff, the local TV producer is a rival for Isabella's affections, just when Toninho has resolved to do everything in his power to win back Isabella for himself. This film is pure fantasy and pure entertainment. It is a pleasure to watch. Penelope Cruz sparkles in her role. Murilo Benicio is a joy to view but his character is less well developed which is unusual given his popularity and extraordinairy acting ability. Mark Feurerstein plays a believable TV producer. Harrold Perrineau, Jr is an amusing cross-dressing drag queen and a good friend to Isabella ...Overall, the film is quite funny and finishes on a positive and satisfying note. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

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Reviews


a very dishy chef with food almost as tasty
Review date: 2007-06-08 Rating: 6 out of 10

As a visual spectacle this is a gorgeous movie and the music played throughout it is lively,soft and romantic.The humour is light-hearted
and the story being told is easy to follow.The producers of the film did such a good job making the food look tasty and in presenting the chef,Penelope Cruz, as the main dish that the viewer is left in no doubt that if Cruz started a cookery programme on tv in real life a lot of people would watch it!
However for me Woman On Top lacked in its ability
to make me care about what was happening to the characters being portrayed and so I can only give it three stars.

light, colourful and sexy
Review date: 2001-08-13 Rating: 8 out of 10

an aesthetically pleasing film with the locations as appealing as Penelope Cruz.

Our heroine (of jamon jamon fame)plays a young brazilian wife who suffers from motion sickness. to avoid being sick she bruises her husband's machismo as she insists on driving and when it comes to sex as per the title its woman on top. The husband's (an antonio banderas lookalike)adultery results in the knee jerk reaction of cruz running away to san francisco and seeing a witchdoctor to rid her of her broken heart.

without spoiling the plot, what follows is a bright, light, delight of a film featuring high camp, brazilian samba, magic and the sexiest scenes with a jalapeno pepper in a cookery programme ever shot.

its not heavy high culture but it is an accessable, fantastic looking romantic comedy and i loved it

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
John de Lancie
Mark Feuerstein
Penélope Cruz
Harold Perrineau
Murilo Benício

Creators:
Penélope Cruz (Primary Contributor)
Murilo Benício (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036007351
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2001-10-29
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 88 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2001
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Portuguese (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired)
Language: Czech (Subtitled)
Language: Danish (Subtitled)
Language: Finnish (Subtitled)
Language: Hebrew (Subtitled)
Language: Hungarian (Subtitled)
Language: Icelandic (Subtitled)
Language: Norwegian (Subtitled)
Language: Polish (Subtitled)
Language: Portuguese (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)

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