`LA MUJER' A STEP OR TWO ABOVE TELENOVELA.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

'La Mujer de Mi Hermano" neither looks nor feels like the Mexican telenovela that it fundamentally is. That makes the movie interesting. More interesting than the sudsy story it tells, anyway.

Like the title, which translates to "My Brother's Wife," says, it's about two incomparably attractive, seriously resentful siblings, Ignacio (Peru's Christian Meier) and Gonzalo (Colombia's Manolo Cardona), competing for the affections of Ignacio's frustrated, supremely beautiful wife, Zoe (Barbara Mori, a Uruguayan star of Mexican television soaps). The scenario, which Peruvian author Jaime Bayly adapted from his best-selling novel, is rife with the usual risky liaisons, sexual dysfunctions, pregnancy scares and gay best friend for the heroine to confide in.

Considering all the emotional dynamite they're dealing with, the actors give remarkably controlled, credible performances for the genre. That isn't enough to overcome the underlying ridiculousness of some of the stuff they have to play, nor the fact that they were apparently instructed by director Ricardo de Montreuil to exhibit no hint of humor about it at any time. Still, it's refreshing to watch something like this without the usual histrionic overacting.

Visuals enhance La Mujerthe film's cool veneer. You wouldn't know that it was set in Mexico City unless the movie told you that's where it was; mainly because, in keeping with the production's trans-Latin approach, Lima-born de Montreuil shot it in Chile. Not only is everyone incongruously bundled up and often complaining about how cold it is, but nothing about the film's settings remotely evokes the sprawl, bustle or squalor of Mexico's capital. Ignacio and Zoe live in a literally glass house of Modernist design on an otherwise uninhabited hillside, and everywhere they go - restaurants, hotels, her yoga class, artist Gonzalo's studio/bachelor pad - is as elegant as it can possibly be.

I guess the point here is that even the most outwardly comfortable lives can be filled with pain - especially when you can't have children, your metrosexual husband will only make love to you on Saturdays, and his ne'er-do-well little brother can really ring your chimes, but may only be doing so to get back at his rich, hardworking relative. Presses don't need to be stopped for any of this. But even if you don't find it easy to get swept up in "La Mujer de Mi Hermano's" well-worn complications, they at least lead to some very surprising, sympathetic behavior on the parts of characters that lesser, less-rational soap operas would only instruct you to hate.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO - Two and one half stars

(R: sex, nudity, language)

Starring: Barbara Mori, Christian Meier, Manolo Cardona, Bruno Bichir.

Director: Ricardo de Montreuil.

Running time: 1 hr. 33 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Basically a Latin American soap opera about a love triangle between, yes, a man, his wife and his brother. The story's kind of trashy, but the film's strengths are its relative cool tone and restrained performances. In Spanish with English subtitles.

CAPTION(S):

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Photo:

Barbara Mori and Manolo Cardona are sister-in-law and brother-in-law - and seemingly more in this scene from ``La Mujer de Mi Hermano.''