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'Beauty in Trouble'

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BY JOHN ANDERSON | Special to Newsday

June 27, 2008

Comedy and chemistry make for an intoxicating mix in this acerbic, knowing character study from Czech director Jan Hrebejk and screenwriter Petr Jarchovsky - in which a young mother embodies all the reasons women make men crazy. After floods sweep through Prague in the summer of 2002, Marcela (Anna Geislerova) and Jarda (Roman Luknar) are forced to take up residence in the upstairs of a garage in which Jarda, to make ends meet, deals in stolen cars. Although drunk on Jarda's love, Marcela is fed up with his criminal enterprises, so when Jarda is arrested, she moves in with her mother, Zdena (Jana Brejchova), and Zdena's comically gothic husband, Richard (Jiri Schmitzer, who is wonderful).

It's then that she meets the older, wealthier and worldly Evzen (Josef Abrham) and realizes another life is possible: Evzen is courtly and considerate and embraces her children; Jarda, however, is not out of the picture, and seems to be evidence that no matter how nice some men (like Evzen) are, some women, such as Marcela, are prisoners of their hormones. The Czech floods, after all, aren't just a plot device: They're a symbol of the overwhelming power of nature, whether it's in the fields or in the heart.

(unrated)

PLOT Beautiful young mother is torn between a good man and the one who turns her on.

CAST Anna Geislerova, Roman Luknar, Josef Abrham.

LENGTH 1:50

PLAYING AT Clearview Cinemas, Manhasset; Angelika Film Center, Manhattan.

BOTTOM LINE Great performance by Geislerova, in a comic drama that's very wise and often very funny.