While our elected officials are screaming at each other about illegal immigration and 700-mile-long fences, they’re overlooking an infestation just as insidious: the steady stream of crappy movies flowing into this country from south of the border.
“La Mujer de Mi Hermano” (“My Brother’s Wife”) stars actors from all over South America and was shot in Chile by a Peruvian director, yet what it most closely resembles is a Mexican soap opera. Light-skinned Latinos barge around nicely decorated sets, hissing accusations at one another and having sex with people who aren’t their spouses — the very picture of wealthy, spoiled brattishness. I don’t know if Telemundo produces TV movies the way Lifetime does, but if it does, well, that explains “La Mujer de Mi Hermano.”
Pity the gorgeous Zoe (Barbari Mori)! She and her gorgeous husband Ignacio (Christian Meier) have a lot of money but zero chemistry. Despite her gorgeousness and eagerness, Ignacio refuses to have sex with her except on Saturdays, and even then he can’t seem to impregnate her, which strains their relationship further.
Clearly, Zoe has no alternative but to sleep with Ignacio’s gorgeous brother Gonzalo (Manolo Cardona), who has already earned Ignacio’s disdain by being an artist instead of working for a living.
But Ignacio has a secret, too, suggested by his many business trips and general furtive behavior. What sort of secret is it? A gorgeous one? Tune in and find out!
Directed by MTV Latin America honcho Ricardo de Montreuil and adapted by Jaime Bayly from his own novel, “La Mujer de Mi Hermano” is nothing more than 90 minutes of gorgeous people lying to each other. Zoe lies to Ignacio, Ignacio lies to Gonzalo, Gonzalo lies to his regular girlfriend — why, they even lie to the poor maid, Maria, who must wonder what she did to deserve working for such despicable, self-centered idiots.
D+ (1 hr., 29 min.; Spanish with subtitles; )
