A gay romp, not to say a merry romp or a lively romp or a spirited romp, simply a homosexual romp, a strained and flat and unfunny romp, about the run-up to the first legal same-sex wedding in Spain, a public spectacle involving twenty couples, of whom we focus on three and their hovering mothers. Director Manuel Gómez Pereira assumes, or counts on, the unearned friendliness of the spectator -- as, for example, when Marisa Paredes, playing a film star, gives her blessing to a dinner guest's postprandial marijuana, "Please, I've worked with Almodóvar" (as indeed she has), or when a casual fan on the street misidentifies her as Carmen Maura, another Almodóvar alumna, also a member of the present cast. Perhaps Pereira assumes, or counts on, a bit of rub-off friendliness from friends of Almodóvar. Production and photography, it might be worth noting, exhibit a level of professionalism well above the standard of the American gay cinema; and it might then be troubling to ponder what those different levels imply about mainstream acceptance versus marginalization. Verónica Forqué, Mercedes Sampietro, Betiana Blum. (2005) — Duncan Shepherd