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| Reina de Coazones premieres tonight. |
The story from the press materials: Reina is a humble seamstress “who must overcome the barriers of amnesia to find true love. The story unfolds around mystery, espionage, conspiracy, intrigue, crime and romance, the super-production is set in Las Vegas, Nevada - Sin City - where casinos and nightlife play a leading role in the action.”
REINA DE CORAZONES stars Eugenio Siller in his third leading role at Telemundo. He’s batting .500 at the network after starring in the successful, fine UNA MAID EN MANHATTAN in 2011 and the aforementioned abysmal AURORA in 2010. The lead actress is Paola Núñez in her first role for Telemundo following a string of telenovelas for Azteca in Mexico, most recently the flop DESTINO from last year. The antagonists are played by Telemundo favorite Catherine Siachoque, last seen in LA CASA DE LA LADO, and Juan Soler, his second role for the network after a disappointing fey performance in MARIDO EN ALQUILER last year. Televisa veteran actress Laura Flores moves over to Telemundo in her first full role after a cameo in EN OTRA PIEL. Rounding out the cast are by this point overly familiar Miami Telemundo faces like Henry Zakka (PASIÓN PROHIBIDA), Paulo Quevedo (MARIDO EN ALQUILER), Pablo Azar (MARIDO EN ALQUILER), Wanda D’Isidoro (SANTA DIABLA), Rosalinda Rodríguez (DAMA Y OBRERO) and Paloma Márquez (EL ROSTRO DE LA VENGANZA).
In a rare occurrence for the network, REINA DE CORAZONES premiered first in Mexico allowing the opportunity to sample it before it airs in the US. My thoughts: REINA DE CORAZONES has a slam bam premiere, but quickly descends into the recent Telemundo trend of pell-mell incoherent plotting, shallow characterization, cheapo sets, bad lighting, bad acting, and gratuitous violence. It’s embarrassing vulgar trash, so it will fit right in with Telemundo’s current prime time lineup of EN OTRA PIEL and EL SEÑOR DE LOS CIELOS.
MANUAL PARA SER FELIZ
If Telemundo’s recent output is getting more insane and vulgar, the Colombian office comedy MANUAL PARA SER FELIZ (weekdays at 3 p.m. ET on MundoFox) is perhaps too sane. It is refreshingly set in this world rather than novela-land, its modest ambition and minor dramas contrast with the recent trend, not only in telenovelas, for spectacle and outrageous shocks. It’s like the novela equivalent of an indie film, sure to charm some, bore others.
So far, MANUAL PARA SER FELIZ’s central drama is a potential love triangle between three nice, likable characters. After catching his wife (Katherine Porto) in flagrante delicto, Juan (Ricardo Leguízamo), a milquetoast accountant, takes charge of his sad life following the guidelines of a self-help book. While working for Luisa (Marcela Mar), a fashion entrepreneur who is transforming her late father’s shirt factory into a high fashion brand, he catches the eye of her ditzy cousin (Constanza Camelo), but then Luisa also begins to develop feelings for Juan, but doesn’t want to hurt her cousin. Luisa also has a fiancé (Andrés Suárez), a gambling addict long obsessed with marrying Luisa who also happens to be Juan’s boss. A comedic subplot involves Juan’s bratty kids making life hell for their mother and her moved-in lover (Rodrigo Candamil).
The plotting is leisurely, loose and mostly free of obvious artifice aside from a couple rom-com clichés – the scene of the couple getting stuck in an elevator and the scene where they are forced to share a room at an overbooked hotel – which were harmless enough. The acting from the three principals – Leguízamo, Mar and Camelo – is intelligent, subtle and nuanced. In particular, it’s a joy to see Marcela Mar in a lead role again in a real telenovela after a supporting role in the hilariously awful Miami-novela EL TALISMÁN.
LA IMPOSTORA
LA IMPOSTORA hit its stride about three weeks from the finale and everything seemed to finally be coming together in what was a messy, but entertaining middle-of-the-road telenovela from Argos/Telemundo for a decent finish. Unfortunately, two weeks of ludicrous tripe followed leading to a wholly idiotic and unsatisfying conclusion. Throughout its run, you really just wanted to see Christian Bach – far better here than in her similar role in LA PATRONA – and Manuel Landeta go at it, but were stuck having to follow the dull leads instead. Poor Sebastián Zurita was saddled playing the dumbest male protagonist since Octavio in CORAZÓN INDOMABLE. The performance of Lisette Morelos as the female lead was just bizarre as she played the entire novela in a lifeless stupor - a complete waste in a role that should be an actor’s dream - a chameleon slipping into different characters and disguises. A scene late in the run where a series of photographs of Morelos in her various disguises was hilarious as she had the same dead-eyed blank expression in every photo. The excellent supporting cast including Alpha Acosta, Begoña Narváez, Jonathan Islas (again playing an other brother role but a big improvement over his previous two performances), Julieta Grajales and Macarena Oz helped make up for the lead’s deficiencies and though mediocre, LA IMPOSTORA is easily the best telenovela from Telemundo since PASIÓN PROHIBIDA.
FAVORITES FOR WEEK OF JUNE 27-JULY 3
Favorite telenovla: DE QUE TE QUIERO, TE QUIERO
Favorite performer: Marisol del Olmo and Cynthia Klitbo
Favorite scene: from DE QUE TE QUIERO, TE QUIERO, Natalia’s two mothers Carmen and Irene brawling in the bedroom during Carmen’s birthday party and coming to an understanding.
And catching up, some favorites from June:
QUÉ POBRES TAN RICOS has already moved well into tedium for me (the Colombian version telling the same story only lasted 120 episodes, the Mexican version airing on Univision is now around episode 130 and still has two months to go), but the scene of Arturo Peniche’s macho fruit vendor discovering his son played by José Eduardo Derbez was gay and the tirade of hateful invective that followed, though mostly bleeped by Univision, nevertheless remained a brutal and effective scene well-played by the entire cast.
On LO QUE LA VIDA ME ROBÓ, the scene between José Luis and Montserrat after he drags her home after catching her in bed with her other husband, the supposedly dead Alejandro, was appropriately harrowing, ugly and surprisingly authentic for a novela that usually plays its drama in a heightened, exaggerated style. As his role in LA PROMESA attested, Luis Roberto Guzmán is better when playing a creep than hero and his performance as José Luis in recent weeks is hitting its stride. Angelique Boyer as Montserrat is a fascinatingly uneven actress. She can become sugar plum fairy lovey-dovey and some of her line reads are so off they make you giggle, but then she’ll surprise you with something that just knocks your socks off.
Finally, on DE QUE TE QUIERO, TE QUIERO, one of the funniest things I’ve seen on a novela this year was when the reunion of Gino and La Conchetina, played by Ricardo Kleinbaum and Arleth Terán, climaxed with them suddenly croaking the novela’s opening theme song, a duet by Manuel Mijares and Yuri called “Amor, amor,” to each other full of passion and bum notes. It was just so goofy and unexpected and the fact the two characters are borderline offensive ethnic stereotypes only made it that much funnier – a low comedy delight.
R.G. Morin writes a regular column for We Love Soaps, "Telenovela Watch: A weekly look at the world of telenovelas for non-Spanish speakers." For feedback or questions, you can email R.G. Morin at [email protected].
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