The story begins with two young Mexican couples engaged in furious intercourse. It turns out that the two boys are best friends. One of them comes from a rich family, the other middle class, and they are giving their girlfriends a farewell present (and/or getting one from them) before the two girls fly off for an extended summer vacation abroad.

The boys are left to figure out how they will get through the long summer without girlfriends, especially after all their alternate sexual plans fall through dramatically. By chance, they encounter a long-forgotten cousin who, while a complete ass, has a charming Spanish wife. The boys, drunk and bored, end up hitting on the wife, even inviting her to drive with them to a distant beach. She declines, of course, but chance again intervenes when she finds out about her husband's infidelity, and decides to run away with the boys. Shocked and surprised by her change of heart, and lacking an actual beach to go to (the one they used in their pick-up line was fabricated ex tempore), they contrive a hastily-prepared road trip.

As they drive through the remnants of an ancient and impoverished Mexico to the ocean, the trio talk about sex and love and jealousy. It is interesting to note, and touching, that they don't seem to notice their surroundings. Peasants stop their car to collect money for a local beauty queen. An impoverished auto mechanic gives the rich boy his hat. A local motel has a swimming pool filled with filthy water and leaves. At no time do they seem to take note of the disparity between their lives of modern privilege and the backwards rural world around them. They take their class status for granted.

The wife behaves in a way they never really dreamed possible. The first night in a small town, she unsubtly seduces one of the boys. This would probably be a dream come true if it were a story about one young man and a kind older woman. But there are two young men, so the seduction creates feelings of betrayal and jealousy in the boy left out. In his anger, he confesses to having had sex with the other boy's girlfriend. The boys' friendship seems to be disintegrating, so the wife thinks she must restore the balance by seducing the other boy. This causes the first one to get angry and confess that he also slept with his friend's girlfriend. (This after his outrage at his friend's confession the previous night.)

The wife sees the way they are behaving and asks - "what the hell is wrong with you guys? You got me here hoping to screw me, right? You're both getting exactly what you thought you wanted, so what is the problem?"

What, indeed? What deeper secrets have caused them to lash out at each other? Can their friendship endure the revelations of the past and future? Why is this mature, sexy woman getting so heavily involved in their sexual education? Surely she must have some great desperation she is concealing, something far deeper than a realization of her husband's infidelity.

All of these questions provide you with the reasons to watch the film. I think you'll find it to be one of the best, most honest coming of age films ever made, and I'd recommend it to just about anyone who doesn't mind seeing naked bodies entwined explicitly in various combinations.

Spoilers:

Don't expect this to be like American Pie. Imagine an American Pie with a deep underlying look at social stratification and the forced modernization of an old culture. Then imagine seeing all the sex acts on the last night of American Pie in detail, between actual naked people. Then imagine a topper-offer in which Oz buggers Jim in the closing credits, and the band camp chick dies of cancer, and you might have the idea. Is the film coarse? Not at all. It is tender and honest, but it is brutally frank in many ways that a Hollywood movie could never be.

Nudity Report: All possible body parts from Maribel Verdu, all body parts from Ana Lopez Mercado, pubes from Maria Aura.

Critics Vote: Ebert 4/4,Berardinelli 2.5/4. James Berardinelli was pretty much the only critic in the world to score the film this low. The film was nominated for the Golden Globe as the best foreign-language film and it won various prizes at international film festivals.

IMDb Summary: IMDb voters score it 8.0/10.

Box Office: With their dollars: made for a modest $5 million dollars, it grossed $13 million in the USA despite never appearing on as many as 300 screens. It set all box office records in Mexico.

DVD Info: Widescreen anamorphic 1.85:1. Spanish with (optional) English subtitles. Three (unimportant) deleted scenes. Commentary by cast and crew. Theatrical trailer(s). Short film "Me la Debes." Making-of featurette.


Written by: Scoopy …courtesy of Scoopy.net