"Woman on Top" is a romantic comedy with a strongly Brazilian flavor (well, Brazilian as seen by mainstream Hollywood; this is a Fox Searchlight film). We start out in the small fishing town of Bahia (or is Bahia the area?) in Brazil. Isabella is a beautiful baby, blessed by the Goddess of the Sea (whose name I don't remember, but apparently everyone in the village worships her and gives offerings for better fishing) but with one big problem: motion sickness. Isabella throws up in the baby carriage, cars, boats, elevators, anything that moves unless she is in control. This even extends to sex, where she always has to be on top. To make up for this deficiency, the Goddess granted Isabella with a gifted culinary touch -- her favorite ingredient being some sort of native pepper.

Isabella grows up to be a beautiful young woman (now played byt PenŽlope Cruz) and falls in love with Toninho (pronounced To–ino, this is Portuguese after all; Toninho is played by Murilo Ben’cio), a latin hunk with a great singing voice and an uncontrollable pelvis. They get married and Toninho opens a restaurant with Isabella being the cook. The restaurant flourishes and Isabella gets many offers to be head cook at some major restaurants, but she is in love with Toninho and melts in his arms. She is not quite satisfied though, being stuck in the kitchen all the time she sees that Toninho gets all the credit and fame while she is kept out of the way in the dungeon. But, she would be satisfied with this life if not for one night when Toninho, finally fed up with always being on the bottom, slips away to have sex with another woman. Isabella catches them and that very night she leaves Toninho and travels to San Francisco to visit Monica (played by Harrold Perrineau Jr), a transvestite who grew up in Bahia until his family moved away.

Once in San Francisco, Isabella tries to find a job but is continuously turned down, even by a local fish and chips place. She does find a job at a local culinary school and one day attracts the notice of Cliff (Mark Feuerstein) who is desperately trying to come up with an idea for a new 19:30 show for his boss, Alex (John de Lancie). Cliff comes up with a cooking show showcasing Isabella's beauty and Brazilian recipes (the show is called Passion Food because you have to have a passion when cooking, or something like that).

Meanwhile, back in Bahia, Toninho's restaurant is not doing well. Toninho himself is pining for Isabella and asks the Goddess to give him a clue of where she went. His eyes fall on one of Monica's paintings and he suddenly knows where to go. So that's the first half hour to 45 minutes of the movie. We have Isabella trying to be her own independent woman while being pursued by two men, Toninho and Cliff, with Monica being the helpful sidekick.

There is a lot of Brazilian music, in the background and with Toninho singing. I'm not too sure if Portuguese is one of the Romance Languages, it has a sort of Spanish sound too it, but it's too soft, too sibilant. I think all of the music is Brazilian, and most of the background music is based on Brazilian music. It kind of pervades the movie and I suppose it was a bit annoying to me, mostly because it sounds like I should be able to understand it but I don't.

The acting is ok, the romance is ok, the plot is ok. Other than the Brazilian music there isn't that much new here. You can sympathize with Isabella but she doesn't really have much character. Actually Toninho has the most well developed character and goes through the most character development in the movie. Isabella is second and is more limited. Cliff is third and nobody else is developed enough to change.

This movie has so far panned in the box office (most movies have during the Olympics, but "Woman on Top" debuted at #10). It's a nice movie but it didn't really grab me and me deeply care about the characters and what happens to them. It's probably an ok date movie and if you like Brazilian music this is also the movie for you. Otherwise go watch "Duets" instead.