Rented Y Tu Mama Tambien via movietrak last week. This film has been one of the arthouse successes of the year and following over 3,000 votes has a not-to-be-sniffed-at 8/10 average user rating at IMDB. Yet it is also one of Anja's pet hates, and it's best not to mention it to her when there's cutlery lying about, to be honest. So who is right? 3,000 IMDB users or Anja? Parallax View decided to investigate.

Watching it, it's fairly easy to see why so many people like Y Tu Mama Tambien. It's a road movie-cum-male sex fantasy where two young men fall lucky when Maribel Verdu (playing a gorgeous woman who has just discovered her husband has been unfaithful) decides to join them on a road trip to a beautiful beach of near-mythical proportions. Its a sex comedy that's raunchy and funny, braver and more explicit than its Hollywood counterparts, laced with social commentary that's either poignant or contrived, depending on your viewpoint.

Yet the film is flawed and it's an easier film to watch than it is to think about afterwards. The script is spot-on when dealing with the bonding, sparring and competitiveness between the two young men, but is on conspicuously less sure ground where Verdu's character is concerned. She vacillates between dissolving into hysterical bouts of tears and confident, seductive dominatrix behaviour with the two horny Mexicans, sometimes in the same scene. Maybe Maribel Verdu is a versatile and talented enough actress to project vulnerability and sensuousness in such a way to paper over these cracks, but the more you think about it, the less her character makes sense except as a cypher through which to examine the lads' behaviour.

This shortfall is further exacerbated by the arbritary fate the film's clumsy, unnecessary epilogue deals to the Maribel Verdu character. Although I wouldn't put anyone off seeing this movie, there's no escaping the fact that it's a bittersweet confection that leaves a little nasty taste in the mouth.