| The climax of the Spanish film Queens (Las reinas) consists of the first multiple televised wedding ceremony of gays and lesbians in Spain, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2003. However, gays are secondary characters in the film, and lesbians are accorded only a fleeting role as extras. Instead, the film focuses on the gays’ heterosexual parents, who have a lot of psychological and social problems; indeed, they repeatedly frustrate their sons in various ways. Except for males kissing each other on a few occasions, the sex is entirely heterosexual. The comedy, developed through flashbacks and flashforwards and short cuts of the antics of the parents, mostly 50ish mothers, is often difficult to distinguish from the maudlin. Magda (played by Carmen Maura) owns a gay-oriented hotel, but while her husband is out of town she has to deal with a strike on the part of hotel employees led by the head chef, who treats her as his mistress. Ofelia (played by Betiana Blum) arrives from Argentina with her pet dog and expects to be put up at her son-in-law’s magnificently decorated apartment for three months instead of the one week that she previously promised. Magda’s son Miguel (played by Unax Ugalde) marries Ofelia’s son Oscar (played by Daniel Hendler), but after her dog urinates on an antique carpet and the apartment is ransacked because Ofelia is robbed one day, including her keys to the apartment. Elena (played by Mercedes Sampietro), a judge, ends up officiating at the multiple civil marriages after the judge originally scheduled dies of a heart attack; fearful of the publicity for her role, she is clearly homophobic but constrained from articulating her bias in view of her judicial role. Nuria (played by Verónica Forqué), a nymphomaniac, even seduces her future son-in-law, Elena’s son Hugo (played by Gustavo Salmerón), into the bedroom. Hugo finally marries Narciso (played by Paco León) but seriously contemplates suicide due to his unexpected indiscretion. Reyes (played by Marisa Paredes), a famous actress, snobbishly looks down on Jacinto (played by Lluis Homar), the father of her son’s partner because he has been her gardener for many years, and he responds by criticizing her for arrogance, thereby tweaking a bit of class conflict between Reyes’s son Rafi (played by Raúl Jimenez) and the gardener’s son, Jonas (played by Hugo Silva). As expected, the heteros eventually come around to support their sons, who have been wavering in their commitments due to the maladroit behavior of their parents. The actual event in Spain was doubtless devoid of any comedy, but director Manuel Gomez Pereira’s sitcom leaves filmviewers with the unfortunate impression that mixed-up parents, especially strong-willed mothers, are responsible for sons who become gay. MH |