Very disappointing...

Pretty Good

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

As far as the quality of the movie is concerned, it was not bad. I have seen many more films from Spain and I tend to like their humor and approach to gay sexuality and relationships. This movie, however, seems to have been written with a gay cliché dictionary in hand to make up for the sad plot. If this is what the life of a professional gay man and a straight woman of 40 is expected to be like, I feel bad for both of them. I have no problem with the codependency between the two but it certainly makes me wonder why Esperanza doesn't realize that a big part of the reason why she is single is because she has surrounded herself with gay men. The same would happen to Ramon if he only had straight women around him and nothing else. The movie fails to show that the answer is found in the ability to be the best of friends without losing your own identity and addressing your needs and dreams. If you live your life through your best friend, don't expect to have your own dreams fulfilled.

For one thing, I found the movie terrible verbose, dialog heavy. I was going crazy trying to read the sub-titles and watching the sexy stuff going on the screen at the same time. And in the end, I didn't feel much empathy towards either of the lead characters, especially the guy, who seemed one hell of a selfish pain in the ass to have as a friend. And it seemed weird having one single straight woman and every other character in the movie (including the one guy she's shown dating) turning out to be gay. In the final analysis, the best part of the movie was the birthday cake that was so lovingly baked during the titles - I drooled.

Very well developed plot incorporating nice looking guys and the ubiquitous, ever-loving; ever-forgiving fag-hag! I did enjoy the Spanish dialog (though sometimes a bit too fast). A film that exemplifies the value of true friendship. Lovers come and go, but friends are always near to advise and console; for better or for worse.

The Spanish dramatic sit-com, AMOR DE HOMBRE (Is translation necessary?) is a fresh and (for non-Spaniards) foreign take on what is becoming a deluge of "the perfect gay man as a girl's best friend" movies. To be objective, one must remember this movie was released before THE OBJECT OF MY AFFECTION, MY BEST FRIEND'S WEDDING, and RELAX, IT'S JUST SEX (to mention but a few) and two years before Madonna and Rupert Everett started playing the story out in the "real" world, and on film next year. The plot of AMOR has just the right number of interesting (stereotypical can be interesting) characters, and believable situations (the gay caracters DO have sex lives) to make the movie work on comedic and dramatic levels. The unusual depiction of gay men as "normal" yuppies (doctors, lawyers and teachers; no hair dressers or designers here), who like straights, have lives of their own, lends crossover appeal to the arthouse crowd.