Customer Reviews

20 Centimeters

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

20 Centimeters is a quirky, sexy fiesta of a film, with light and darkness mixed in beautiful measure.

The quirky is at the film's core. The main character is pre-op transsexual Marieta (Monica Cervera), who has multi-hour narcoleptic snoozes in the middle of shopping, interviewing and working either at the train depot or hunting tricks on the streets as a hooker. During her snoozes, she imagines herself as a seductive, playful heroine of musical scenes that transform the city into colorful visions of casts of dancers leaping and sliding to Marieta's singing in English, French and English.

The interesting thing is, Marieta's fantasy life really is fantasy of gender, not occupation. She doesn't want to be a singer or an actress - maybe a news anchorwoman, she says. These flights are on a par with the campy, stylish glitz of the Australian drag queens of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, but these song dreams are the flights of an imaginative regular man-woman.

The quirk doesn't stop there, though: Her best friend and roommate is a dwarf who can't seem to make any money. The funny thing is, after 15 minutes in the world of Marieta, the quirk fits right in. For a chick with a dick who sells herself on the streets, but yearns for a regular job, it's just a day in her life: caring for her neighbor's son, lying around with her handsome gay friend, and yearning for the peach-buttocked grocery stocker.. Some unexpected things unfold for Marieta and her friends, but nothing truly overwhelming for what turns out to be a hell of a woman who just wants to be rid of her 20-centimeter/8-inch problem.

In all her interactions with women, Marieta proves to be every bit as womanly yet possessed of a strength that comes with a life of fighting to be who she wants to be with care, compassion and a zest for life - real or fantasy.

Writer/actor/director Ramón Salazar ('Amnèsia', 'Piedras') is becoming a formidable presence on the Spanish cinema scene. He takes risks, he knows he takes them, and he makes them turn out in his favor. '20 Centimeters' is a mix of a story that is part hilarious musical comedy and part sensitive character portrayal of people who live just outside the edge of what is cruelly called 'normal': the mix makes for a jolly fluffy cake that smacks of Salazar's predecessors Almodóvar and Fellini.

Marieta (the enormously talented Mónica Cervera) is a work in progress: she dresses as a woman, has breast implants, is on painful steroid injections, but still retains the 20 centimeter remnant that prevents her from becoming the totally feminine woman she desires. She has a heart of gold, works the streets as a prostitute with special gifts to earn money for her transgender surgery. But at home she shares an apartment with a dwarf Tomás (the very handsome and talented Miguel O'Dogherty) who squanders Marieta's money on ticket scams that don't work, cares for her friend Berta's (Concha Galán) son, and provides emotional support to her fellow sex workers. She has a major problem: she has narcolepsy and falls asleep for several hours at a time in the most inappropriate places (!) and during these sleep periods dreams of Broadway musical numbers occur in which she is the singing (in Spanish, French and English) and dancing star with a cast of hundreds in the wildest of costumes!

Marieta yearns for love and when she notices one Raul (the very hunky and talented Pablo Puyol) she feels she is in love, especially when Raul returns her attention, takes her home to meet his rather low class gross parents and family, and most importantly physically falls in love with her - AND her 20 centimeter unwanted obstruction to happiness. How Marieta comes to grips with her focal surgical dream versus her chance for love is the tender way the film concludes.

Mónica Cervera carries this very difficult role extremely well, not only allowing us to see the inner suffering being she truly is but also popping the cork off the champagne bottle of musical production numbers that pepper this fun movie. The cast is uniformly fine (Pilar Bardem, the mother of superstar Javier Bardem, has a fine little cameo role) and the direction show that Ramón Salazar has tight reins on his talent. This is a film that is bawdy fun without ever spilling over into the realm of bad taste. Watching it is a toe-tapping good time! Grady Harp, December 06

Wow, this movie was great. I borrowed it from a friend and finally watched it a week later. Sometimes the movie you keep putting off to watch turns out to be better than you thought. This was one of them. I could watch it everyday. I wish I could find the soundtrack cause all the songs were fun. The music numbers were exciting and the storyline and acting were strong, i mean, how many movies star a pre-op transsexual woman? Highly recommend.

Critics for the most part panned this musical Almodovarian clone about a pre-operative transexual whose dream is to become a biological woman. I understand some of their concerns, like lack of a true plot and awkwardly placed musical numbers. And, at times it felt somewhat derivative (especially a musical number that seemed like a ripoff of Michael Jackson's THRILLER). But, I was nonetheless charmed by this unorthodox, humanistic and profoundly touching celluloid poem to transgendered people. The respect it conveys to the central character makes her life, her dreams and, yes, her libido worthy of the highest form of celebration. My three star rating is more a statement on the film's less than perfect story arc than its overall message. If a little more time had been given to developing the script, this fairly obscure little gem would have done much better at the box office. I highly recommend it to those who are willing to overlook its flaws.

This movis is simply an amazing one and i had to had the dvd for my collection.
The shipping was super fast and efficient, very glad to deal with this providor and will deal again.

My beautiful straight neighbor lent this movie to me last year(2010) and I sat starring at it cause I was not in the mood to read subtitles!

This movie is a MUST SEE if you are gay or into gay themed movies...they say on the back of the DVD, that it's similar to "Priscilla" & the director,Aldomovar...BUT I tend to disagree, in the fact that it's its OWN MOVIE....from the art direction, costumes, choreography etc.....it's just a perfect movie..I do not know WHY the heck it did not make it here in the USA and get marketed...THIS would even make a great Broadway show...HEY PRODUCERS>>>YOU LISTENING!!....LOVED,,LOVED IT !!!!


THANK YOU to Ramon Salazar, who wrote and directed it

it is a TOP TEN for me now, of Gay themed movies!
Cheers..
Tony(NYC)

I already owned a copy of this movie, it was on the wish list of a mutual friend for his b-day, he is much younger than I am so I was surprised and impressed that he had heard it never mind seen.

Took it off his wish list and that is all she wrote

I was really surprised of how fast i received the ordered item from the US, it said that it will be on its way at least a couple of weeks, but it was like 10 days or something. the dvd is in best condition so thanks a lot!

One of my all time favorite movies, gritty, funny, raw, light-hearted, all at the same time!

I was already intrigued witin the elements involved in the production, but I enjoyed it even more, when I actual seen the whole movie. I have a new found respect for particular director, and their vision.It's very energetice, and bursting with life. Also, it shares with ppl who are living outisde of the glbt community, it introduces glbt ppl in a nu light. I loved it.