Woman on Top

Spain’s sultry, super-sensual Penelope Cruz plays a chef named Isabella, who leaves her Brazilian homeland, stifling marriage and cheating husband (Murilo Benicio) for a new life in San Francisco. Isabella moves into an apartment with a transvestite childhood friend (The Best Man’s Harold Perrineau, Jr.) in this comic tale of self-empowerment, becomes the star of a TV cooking show and learns to take charge of her future. The camera absolutely loves Cruz, but director Fina Torres (Celestial Clockwork) has some trouble maintaining a sense of magical realism. Isabella is prone to motion sickness, and the title refers to her favorite sex position as well as her new state of mind.