Gaudi afternoon

Cassandra Reilly (Judy Davis) is a nomadic American translator living in Barcelona, Spain who takes on a missing person job as she is short of funds. She finds herself working for the mysterious and beautiful Frankie Stevens (Marcia Gay Harden). Frankie however does not tell Reilly the full story and Reilly becomes intrigued by different characters that she starts to trail, including Ben (Lili Taylor), a butch American lesbian, April (Juliette Lewis), her bohemian girlfriend and Hamilton, their friend, a bi-sexual magician. Davis plays Cassandra as a clumsy, self-conscious and straight-laced neurotic who is a fish-out-of-water in the ‘exotic’ gay and lesbian scene. A cross-dressing black comedy, “Gaudi afternoon” is an amusing undertaking from director Susan Seidelman (Desperately seeking Susan, She-devil), who spent ten years directing for television before returning to film with this feature. Seidelman never seems to quite make all the elements gel but the impressive cast and beautiful locale go some way to making the film an enjoyable ride. Fans of “Desperately seeking Susan” may be interested to decipher the similarities between the two narratives here.