Director: Dominique Cardona, Laurie Colbert
Running Time: 91 mins
Margarita is the perfect nanny. She takes care of young Mali, cleans for rich couple Ben and Gail, and even repairs the gutters. When she’s not fending off marriage proposals from handsome young men, Margarita takes breaks in the hot-tub with her girlfriend. But as her bosses, Ben and Gail, find themselves in financial trouble, her life is turned upside down; they must let her go. As an illegal immigrant she must find a way to overcome this new challenge, the threat of deportation lingering over her head.
She takes up vigilantism and fights crime.
Okay, that last line was a lie, but we had to be sure you weren’t drifting off reading the summary. This TV drama plot inspires little, so what Margarita needed was strong characterisation, powerful writing and dynamic exploration of the complex relationships that exist within families.
One line from the film sums up perfectly how well Margarita achieved this: “In Mexico, we don’t fire family!”
[Cringe]
The idolatry of the main character by the writers is torturous to behold: they make a big deal about Margarita being ‘perfect’ and ‘a goddess’. Rather than inspiring awe in the audience, it makes her so one-dimensional she garners little sympathy as she finds herself in trouble. As she turns malicious towards everyone we like her even less! On many occasions the idea of her being ‘perfect’ falls apart.
There have been some mentions of Mary Poppins in other reviews. However, what made Miss Poppins such a great character, and so perfect, was that she was not loved by all immediately. She was strict, had secrets and, at the start, was hard to trust. Yet, as you got to know her, it all falls together. Margarita’s character is flat and contradictory and it gets sickening: once she reprimands the daughter for saying the word ‘bitch’, but happily smokes a joint in front of her on another occasion.
The constant middle-of-the-road soundtrack that fills every gap in dialogue again breaks engagement and the gratuitous focus on lesbianism, to the detriment of story, is tacky. As a celebration of lesbianism it alienates many viewers, for example, male characters are horribly clichéd (and explicitly stereotyped by Margarita). LGBT films should be moving beyond this. With other films at this year’s London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, homosexuality is incidental and not the ‘be all and end all’ of the picture. This is the right direction for LGBT films. Margarita takes us right back to when the lesbian aspect is at the forefront, while the narrative pops up for convenience every now and then.
There are some good points, however. The direction, editing and shot-composition belies real talent. Patrick McKenna as the eccentric father is outstanding: he is hilarious despite his minor role. Much of this, for me, was undermined by one scene in the film: Mali, the young daughter, has decided that she wants to be ‘bisexual’ because her ‘wonderful’ nanny is a lesbian. The message here? Young people in contact with homosexuals might choose that ‘way of life’. Homosexuality is contagious. I nearly snapped my pen when I saw this. Truly damaging.
Overall Verdict: Maybe there is a specific audience for this film. You might be a lesbian who believes all men are the same. For you, story and character depth might be superfluous next to watching steamy lesbian love scenes and idolising attractive Mexican nannies. If that’s the case, you will love this film. As for everyone else, there are better ways to spend 90 minutes. Chewing tin-foil perhaps?
Reviewer: Adrian Naik
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