Son Of The Bride

By RICHARD SCHICKEL

Rafael (Ricardo Darin) runs a prosperous, but crisis-ridden restaurant, his ex-wife is a shrew, his daughter and his girlfriend are variously estranged, and now his aged father wants to remarry his mother in the church wedding he refused her 44 years ago. Trouble is, Mom (the great Norma Aleandro) has Alzheimer's, and the church is dubious about the ceremony. Heart attack and midlife crisis are, naturally, Rafael's lot. Ours is pure pleasure as he works his way toward a more contented state in this wry, richly layered, wonderfully observed Argentine film.

--R.S.