MARCELA, a mother of two, lives in a dump with her husband, Jarda, who runs a chop shop.
The couple lost almost everything in the Prague floods of 2002. About the only thing the two have going for them now is raw, noisy sex, which we are privileged to witness in an early scene from Jan Hrebejk’s Czech melodrama “Beauty in Trouble.”
But even lust has its limits, and Marcela and kids get fed up and move in with Marcela’s mother and her loutish boyfriend. (He enjoys farting at the breakfast table in front of everybody. Imagine!)
Then Jarda gets busted, and Marcela crosses paths with Evzen, owner of the car that landed Jarda in the slammer.
Evzen is an older gentleman with class, distinguished gray hair and a vineyard in Italy. Next thing we know, Marcela and her children are sharing Evzen’s sunny paradise.
Storm clouds appear when Jarda is freed – and puts up a fight to regain his family. Will Marcela (wonderful Ana Geislerova) opt for brains or brawn? The answer might surprise you.
In Czech, with English subtitles. Running time: 110 minutes. Not rated (sex, nudity, bad manners). At the Angelika, Mercer and Houston streets.