Review of Ladies' Night

Ladies' Night (2003)
2/10
Romantic issues shouldn't be this light
16 December 2003
México did it again. That regular vision of us, with fairy tales sceneries and realismo mágico stories, has been implanted in this romantic comedy featuring (once again) mostly people from TV. From starters, Ladies' night doesn't look for a profound meaning, but the lightness that bears it's plot is more than just simplicity; it's almost insulting. The story centers in Alicia (for Alice in wonderland, played by Talancón), a candid woman whom has never been really understood since her childhood and that spends her life in a world of fantasy that she draws by and for herself. Her wedding is only a week away and she's engaged to Fabián (Corres), the editor in a teen magazine, and his coworker and best friend is Ana (de la Reguera), a "rebel type" girl who's more than evident that has a crush on him. Ana doesn't like Alicia and vice versa, so when the bachelorette party for Alicia comes, an uninvited Ana comes along and she as a secret surprise for the party, she hired a male stripper named Rocco (Guzmán) to spice up things, 'cause Ana and her friends are very uptight. But, after performing his act, fate arrange things for an instant click between Rocco and Alicia. Then, after some events that involves a small robbery and a video tape with scenes from a previous encounter between Ana and Fabián, both girls have to go after Rocco but with different intentions: while Alicia tries to find him to make up her mind about the marriage, Ana tries to recover the tape so Alicia won't find out.

This plot leads to an odyssey through México City with Alicia and Ana, and it is also the perfect excuse to create a romantic comedy to be treated under the label of a buddy movie but with girls. It's the same old song in which two antagonist characters comes to the end of the trip becoming best friends (take Por la libre as an example) and OK, even if this is not new neither anyone expects it to be, is in the way the plot develops where lies all the holes, failures and misguiding. Also, the level of intelligence in it has been dumbed so low that it couldn't be done without hurting the whole idea, and not to mention that the acting is flat, the characters are unidimensional (it's profiles are based on clothes, not in personality), and the language they use sounds pretty much fake.

Basically, Ladies' night is a very light motion picture with it's target on girls who are supposed to talk "dirty" and feel cool about it. There's some sexual situations but none of them are graphic neither sensual, and for the "irreverent" parts it uses the source of cartoons. And don't get me wrong, this is not about a hunger for seeing flesh but for watch witty, edgy material, that even if it can't really entertain us, at least be one that can make us feel the real needs in the main roles for each other, the deep passion we are supposed to buy, and the fire that burns only as minimum sparks in here. In the end, this film comes across as one more light teen mexican movie which is predictable, not funny, and with no good things to offer at all.
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