When I was eight years old, my father married an attractive woman 19 years younger than him. Soon after, we all flew to Spain for a beach vacation where I had to learn how to talk to my new topless stepmom without looking at her breasts. I did this by staring straight at the ground at all times. Sensing my discomfort, she started turning her back to me and twisting her neck backwards to speak to me. This was also the first time I had ever been away from my biological mother. I fell asleep every night staring at a picture of her and crying.
Honeymoon with my Mother, a new Netflix comedy from Spain, stirs up these memories in me because, despite gags like a jellyfish suction cupping to the protagonist’s penis, it offers a very convincing tale of a grown-up son’s relationship with his mother. Also because of the Spain connection and a brief scene where the son asks his mom to stop sunbathing topless.
Quim Gutiérrez plays José Luis, a man we see get ditched at the altar in a fun opening scene where his wife-to-be’s ex-lover makes the grand wedding-interrupting gesture that would normally be the climactic end of many romantic comedies. Instead, it’s the start of his story: a not very fun, needy man stuck going on his resort honeymoon in Mauritius with his mother.
Gutiérrez plays a wonderful straight man to the mild comedic madness that ensues. It was a joy to see his stone face get slathered in sunscreen by his overprotective mother. And that stone face also served him well when that jellyfish was sucking on his penis. I’ll admit it, I loved the jellyfish moment. My only quibble is it never gets mentioned again. If a jellyfish sucked on my penis I’d be telling everyone and everybody. It’s also pretty cool that the Spanish word for jellyfish is “medusa”.
But maybe José Luis needs to forget that jellyfish to have the space in his head to make the realization that his mother is a full person with wants and needs of her own. Carmen Machi plays Mari Carmen, the mother. She plays the role perfectly. She shows a more fun-loving side while still showing where her son’s fear of life comes from. Their mother-son dynamic feels so true-to-life that it carries the film through the less believable moments designed to add comedy or drama to the plot.
That drama comes in the form of a mysterious Frenchman played by Dominique Guillo. He seems very friendly with Mari Carmen but we are not sure of his intentions. Much of the comedy comes from a very funny performance by Yolanda Ramos. She plays a resort worker named Montse who for her own reasons forces Mari Carmen and José Luis to pretend they’re an actual married couple. Thankfully the furthest this goes is a few public pecks and Mari Carmen feeding her son papaya that’s fallen in her cleavage.
Justina Bustos rounds out the cast as a tour guide and potential love interest for José Luis. Their relationship plays out realistically, even through the moments of slapstick comedy. Aside from what happens with the mysterious Frenchman, nothing feels too forced plotwise. José Luis’s father back home in Spain is barely fleshed out but there’s only so much time. This movie is about a mother’s love for her son.
Against the background of gorgeous island scenery, these two actors play the moments of mother-son annoyance, anger, fun, accusation, guilt and love so well. It really feels like a lived relationship. It’s a strange thing to find in what is essentially an Adam Sandler vacation comedy. I like Adam Sandler movies, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think his movies have ever shown a relationship I believed in this much.
My own mother died seven years ago after a two-year long battle with cancer. As sad as it was, I got to know her a lot better as a person during those two years. The greatest praise I can give this film is that if she were still alive, my mother would have loved watching this with me.