I didn’t like him as a man; I didn’t like him as a woman. Gee, what’s left? When you do a body switch movie, you’re kinda supposed to like the suspiciously shallow parts of the stunted version of the character or the meaningful parts of the temporary version of the character… but what if you don’t like either? And that is the question unfortunately offered in La Balada de Hortensia.
Big deal comedian Alex (Julio Yúdice) is a narcissistic douchebag. I find it a little hard to believe he’s a comedian as most comedians, regardless of success, seem to maintain a down-to-Earth vibe, which is necessary to relate in comic fashion, no matter how out-of-touch your success makes you. Alex has transcended all that, having no touch with fans, hosts, producers, his wife, his children, his agent, or anyone else for that matter. His bread and butter routine remains a homely vagabond female character. He gets mileage out of her not unlike the way Tyler Perry works Madea. ‘Nuff said! Somebody needs a lesson!
One day, Alex has a car accident and wakes up in a strange bed. And he’s now a she. I haven’t seen one of these switcheroo movies in a while, and it’s been much longer since I saw a gender switch. The “why” is pretty easy to explain. Men who “lose a penis” treat it like a tragedy. Like there’s nothing worse in the world than going from man to woman. Geez, you should be so lucky.
And here’s the big thing – Alex’s alter-ego of “Hortensia” is a better person than Alex to be sure … but I can’t say I care
much for her, either. I suppose I like the part where she’s taking a horndog to task for copping feels on a public bus, but mostly she comes off as brash and angry, just in a different way.
You realize this isn’t “Breaking Bad,” right? This intense experience is not bringing out the “real” person, a la Walter White; and it’s not scaring the person into better behavior because what goes around comes around. This gender-switch romp seems much more likely to end up, for me, in the category of “how long after the swirch-back until the subject is a piece of shit again, huh?” Because there ain’t enough “tense” in “Hortensia” to make me believe any change is permanent. I don’t know that movies like this are necessary anymore – or not in the way that a woman is presented as a natural downgrade – how did that never come up before? Can’t say I would have loved this film even if it were a woman changing into a man and going back.
There once was a Latino king comic
Who went through a change anatomic
His trials were without end
Having to become a friend
But his truest hardship was economic
Not Rated [I’m guessing PG-13, maybe, for brief nudity and peeing in the shower], 94 Minutes
Director: Arturo Menendez
Writer: Arturo Menedez, Javier Rayna, Julio Yudice
Genre: Body-switching is still a thing?
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People desperately hoping their local narcissist will change
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who know they will not
