The beautiful people.

Cecilia Suarez

"Sin Ton Ni Sonia"

Columbia Pictures

I forgot who Salma Hayek is. Oh, now I remember--some spoiled Veracruzana kid that headed north to Hollywood (she packed her silver spoon) and occasionally returns to Mexico to mock the press about how they can't appreciate fine cinematic work, such as her English-speaking Frida Kahlo.

The point here is not another Hayek bashing--I think she received enough last year in her trip south to promote "Frida"-- but rather to write about the emergence of a more entertaining film actress, one with charm, poise, beauty and a dirty mouth. Cecilia Suarez has delivered another witty and sexy performance in "Sin Ton Ni Sonia," the latest in a series of hip Mexico City comedies, cut in the mold of the 1999 surprise smash, "Sexo, Pudor y Lagrimas," which incidentally marked Suarez'z feature-length film debut.

The delicate Suarez plays Rene, described in the production notes as "a beautiful, complicated, postmodern woman with low self-esteem" but who is really more of a foul-mouthed, ready-to-party, chilanga tart. Her first line in the film is, "Yo quiero salir."

Revolving around two dysfunctional couples and their search for happiness--or at least some grain of meaning--in the crazy metropolis that is Mexico City, "Sir Ton Ni Sonia" opened in June. Columbia distributes, and the studio hopes to parlay domestic box office impact into sales north of the border later this year.

Suarez, who like Hayek headed north from a Gulf Coast state (in Suarez's case Tamaulipas) to act in the States, enjoyed some success in Chicago and New York theater before returning home to make her star turn. Suarez has remained in Mexico, working some on the stage and some on the silver screen, forming an integral piece of a young acting circle that is dominating the domestic film market.

"You do see the same faces," said Jose Maria Yazpik, who plays Rene's computer-obsessed boyfriend in "Sin Ton Ni Sonia." "And Cecilia, of course, is very good in this film."

Yazpik dismissed suggestions that the movie could be a crossover hit at the level of last year's "Y Tu Mama Tambien." "That kind of success is not normal for Mexican cinema," he said, adding that he will be pleased if the film registers well with the Latin community in the United States.

For now, the market is Mexican, and the star is a young actress from Tampico, who represents not a white-washed version of some figure in art history, but rather a sexy, straight-talking "postmodern woman" from an urban wasteland whose English-speaking lines are limited to "Oops."