The situation of a Mexican wife with five current and contented husbands, and of the public scandal that erupts upon her arrest, is fresh and promising; and the initial disclosure of it is deftly done (the secret compartment of wedding rings in the heroine's compact, the collage of wedding photos inside her bureau); and the dreamlike intersection of the past and the present in the same space is palatable as long as we don't let ourselves get overly reverential about "magic realism." However, the playing of the heroine (Maria Rojo, of Danzon) as a sort of Happy Polygamist, a blithe spirit of freedom and harmony, a magic-wand emancipator of everyone she comes in contact with (even and especially the gruff cop and closet Gene Kelly fan) tips the thing into idle hypothesis and preachment. It also rules out any kind of sticky complication, so that the story (a short story in its original form) shrinks to the dimensions of an anecdote, cumbrously padded out. Directed by Jaime Humberto Hermosillo. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.