Dona flor: risqué, but successful

Witty foreign film pushes realistic limit

Not much for women's lib but enjoyable none the less, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands gives an interesting solution for how to have a good lover and a good husband, if the viewer is willing to stretch their imagination a bit.

Dona Flor is married to the classic bastard type. He gambles, drinks excessively, cheats on her and beats her. But even lacking moral fiber doesn't make Valdinho any less of a good lover. Dona Flor lusts for her husband in a way that makes the drunkedness, gambling and overall disrespect of her seem insignificant.

At times, it's a little trying to see Dona go back to her husband time after time. But she isn't being suckered by just anyone; Valdinho knows what he's doing. If he beats his wife under the effects of alcohol at night, he sends a band to serenade her the morning after. With such a sweet romantic offer, Dona falters and forgives this ogre.

Mid-movie, Valdinho drops dead, leaving Dona a widow. However, the situation is quickly rectified. Dona's next husband is someone on the other side of the male spectrum: husband two is Teodora, the classic dork type. He's a pharmacist who is jittery, blurts out excessive knowledge at any inappropriate occasion and, incidentally, is very nice.

Teodoro has stability and other fine husband skills. He shows Dona respect. He organizes the house. In short, he is a momma's boy. Despite the fact that he is a good person, however, his niceness does not compensate in the bedroom, and Dona Flor needs that spice in her life that is her dead husband.

And, as if Valdinho had always been within earshot, he comes back from the dead without further explanation other than she wanted him there. He appears as a ghost that only Dona can see. He arrives without words of repentance or apologies that Dona deserves to hear, but the same tactics that caused her to fall into his traps in the first place make her want him again! Now remarried, there develops a battle of how Dona should handle Valdino's propositions. Knowing Dona's past, it is ambiguous as to whether she has control of this situation.

By this point in the movie, it's time that the viewer takes a step back to look at this plot for what it's worth. Not a documentary on moral values, this film - despite its differences from current American flicks - is quite original and funny. It is purely illogical that a husband can come back from the dead to satisfy a wife's needs. And maybe the fact that he comes upon her request, or that she is smart enough to appreciate the simple happiness of her less-charming second husband, gives the sexist side a break. Dona admitts to a kind of passion few can confide they want (that is, unless prostitution is an option). But she's still made slightly vulnerable for openly wanting something that can have a destructive impact on her life.

At times, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands is poetic and beautiful. There is an awareness the title character has of herself that is spoken with poetic illustrations, and these words give the viewer insight on a connection that cannot be defined by practicality; only higher, intense emotions. While it may be taken as a sexual fairy tale, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands works nicely.

Dona Flor and her Two Husbands shows Sunday, Nov. 9 at 7 & 9 p.m.in Kettering. $1.