Roll over Bunuel, tell Almodovar the news! There's a new surrealist filmmaker on the block; his name's Bigas Luna, and his grasp of life's little vagaries falls nothing short of uncanny (not to mention hugely entertaining.)  Gathering what are essentially elements of classic drawing-room farce Jamon, Jamon (Ham and Passion), turns the tables on expected clichés, weaving an entirely unique tapestry of absurdist humor and eroticsim.

Though the actual plot bears little relevance to the film's true charms, here goes: Anna Galiena, your typical spicy young babe born on the 'wrong side of the tracks", discovers that she's been made pregnant by her boyfriend, the son of wealthy underpants tycoons. (Yes, underpants, as in shorts, briefs, boxers, speedos...) Rich bitch mom, who won't even consider the scandalous potential marriage, hires studly Juan Diego to ruin the relationship. Only she doesn't count on falling for Diego, nor Diego Galiena, nor the boyfriend Galiena's mom...

Well, we said it was absurdist! Nearly impossible to convey, however, are all the little trimmings that make Jamon Jamon so delicious: Like an obscene parrot, bullfighting in the nude, garlic aphrodisiacs, an underwear marketing campaign built around the phrase "Samson in your pants", and a duel to the death with shanks of cured pork as the weapon of choice! Not to mention the spontaneous combustion that erupts as the various irresistible parties meet up with the immovable forces of passion. Galiena, a sultry country girl with eyes of liquid Godiva chocolate, cuts a shapely figure like Aguirre slicing through the Amazon. Fueled by mutual attraction/antagonism, she and Diego all but detonate with pent-up desire.

Although the subtitle translation leave something to be desired ("Can I eat your tit?" is a most unlikely exchange for a romantic interlude, but then again this is a comedy) American audiences starved for sophisticated, sexy entertainment will have trouble at all digesting Jamon, Jamon.