Film has a good enough premise but little else. Small Mexican community loses all of its men when they're all rounded up against their will to fight in some unnamed war and the women end up taking over just fine thank you...but as time goes on they find themselves missing their men and wonder what they're gonna do for survival ultimately deciding to try and repopulate their town by sleeping with the one man who is still there--the local priest! (played in a Way over the top performance by Oscar Nunez from "The Office" and "The Proposal") Meanwhile in an almost completely tacked on subplot hotshot intrepid war correspondent Chrisitan Slater is told of this village and sets out on his own to find it as a human interest story in the midst of all this war.
Movie keeps you watching in hopes that it will go somewhere interesting or so but ultimately goes nowhere. It doesn't help that almost every character in the movie is a one dimensional cartoon character--and even less subtle too boot. Film would actually be a complete and total mess were it not for the professional performance of Eva Longoria here. In fact I would go so far to say the reason why the film works at all would be because of the slightly greater depth Longoria gives her character. She actually manages to make her character seem like a better thought out character then the other assorted characters here and while i don't know if that's because the script focuses more on her or if its because Longoria gets to resemble an actual human being as opposed to the more comically exaggerated people here, i give her all the credit in the world for providing the film with someone to actually somewhat care about. (if only Slater's character had been given as much screen time to develop into someone worth caring about as well) Longoria plays the uptight wife of the mayor who gladly takes over after her husband is taken alongside the other men. Film is mostly about how she comes into her own while taking charge and making decisions for once, and also how she learns to loosen up while engaging in a flirtation with a lesbian drifter who becomes the sheriff of the town (as well as the town's resident bad ass) As a case of a former wallflower coming into her own the film actually works---as anything else however the film really doesn't. The film's tone is very broad and played in an over the top farcical style which doesn't really gel with the subject matter. While its nice to see a film with this subject matter not played in heavy handed award baiting sympathy mode...i'm not sure if taking the complete opposite tone was the right track either. The mixture of tones-- wild sex farce and true love amongst suffering village women could work well but doesn't really come off as well as it could here. The film should play well on cable TV tho where the bright colors and bouncy energy will help it stand out from what else is on tho it might not sustain your interest past the second or third commercial break.
