Son of the Bride Review

Son of the Bride Review for USA Today

In a lackluster foreign-film Oscar race, one small entry shines, but it likely will be obscured by the marketing machine surrounding the appealing (but lightweight) front-runner, Amelie. That's too bad, because the Argentine Son of the Bride is one of the best films of the year.

Like In the Bedroom, it poignantly explores relationships between men and women and the strains between parents and children. Like Iris, it paints a devastating portrait of a once-vibrant woman stricken with Alzheimer's. But it's superior to these films in its wide-ranging ambition and joyous, but never sappy, affirmation of life.

Rafael (Ricardo Darín) is a 42-year-old, self-absorbed restaurateur. He's divorced, with a young daughter and an adoring girlfriend. He's the polar opposite of his unflappable father, Nino (Hector Alterio), whose dedication to his wife, Norma (Norma Aleandro), confounds Rafael. Norma lives in a nursing home, but Nino visits her daily. Her eyes shine, then go dull, as she vacillates between childlike innocence and inexplicable bursts of anger. Aleandro's performance is as powerful and convincing as that of Iris' Oscar-nominated Judi Dench.

Everything changes when Rafael has a heart attack. He agrees to help his father with a crazy scheme he had dismissed: a church wedding for his parents after 44 years of marriage. It's comforting to watch his transformation from hard-driving and hard-hearted son to gentle charmer. But it's Bride's celebration of the messiness of familial ties that really charms. (In New York and L.A.; R for language).

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