When Teresa (Marisé Alvarez) finally goes home after a 7 year absence to visit her very conservative family, she isn’t the only one feeling a little chicken. (Sorry we couldn’t resist the pun). She’s gone back to Puerto Rico to not just ‘come out’ as a lesbian to her family, but also to invite them to her wedding with her fellow astronomer Daniela (Prakriti Maduro). Timing is everything, and unfortunately the family are already very distracted by the fact that their father’s poultry plant is the target of both corrupt elements of the Puerto Rican government and the U.S. poultry industry that want to drive it out of business.
Teresa is however not the only one who has been keeping secrets as her younger sister Andrea (Laura Aleman) who is under pressure from their Arcadio their father (Sunshine Logroño) to marry a local rich boy, has instead being having clandestine nighttime bedroom visits from her hot mechanic boyfriend. Then there is their brother Junior (Yamil Collazo) who is supposedly married, yet is also having very indiscreet liasions with his ‘secretary.’ Even their mother Genovara (Elba Escobar) the lynch pin of the family who unquestioningly supports her husband, yet once a week secretly sneaks off to a local nightclub when she sings.
Teresa and Daniela are both astrophysicists and are hooked on their own project in the star galaxy from their Observatory atop a mountain in the Canary Islands, as well as being well and truly hooked on each other. Now however much to Daniela’s dismay, Teresa puts all this and their wedding plans on hold so that she can help her father untangle the mess his business has now found itself in. She hopes that by gaining his confidence and gratitude, breaking her news to him maybe easy, but she never gets a chance to test that theory as suddenly one day Daniela turns up on their doorstep unannounced and the cat is out of the bag.
So are the chickens too. Well, they are out of the coops thanks to Andres (Mauricio Alemañy) who is Andreas young son with Aspergers who provides a funny neat sub-plot to the story.
However in this truly delightful funny movie with its quirky plot there never is any danger at all of it all not working out perfectly by the time the final credits roll, and writer/director Carla Cavina ensures that all the loose ends are tied up. And with all those shots of chickens being battery farmed like that, she also will convert most of the audience to be vegetarians with the same passion as Teresa.
With an excellent talented cast, Extra Terrestres is a great wee film that reminds you that we may spend all our time dreaming and looking up at the stars, but in fact here on earth can be even more wonderful if we just let people into our secrets.
Highly recommended.
