Reinas

I saw this film recently as part of the Manchester celebrations of the enactment of the Civil Partnership Act and I was expecting from the write up a foreign language film with an ethereal link to this specific political moment in time. However it was a fantastically funny film! The film follows a series of couples over the weekend prior to the first gay weddings in Spain.

The delight of the film for me was the intensity of the spectoral gaze upon the relationships between 'gay in-laws' and between gay men and their mothers. The film refuses any clichés.

The defining aspect of this film that makes it excellent is that I totally forgot about the subtitles and just lived the action! The other defining aspect of the films greatness is that this was the first film I have watched at the cinema since 'The Full Monty' that had a raucous round of applause verging onto a standing ovation!