Movies

The setting is a dinner party at a Southern California mansion made awkward by the presence of the title character, a massage therapist played with regal composure and understated mischief by Salma Hayek. The differences of background and economic status between Beatriz and her hosts are obvious enough, and the film hardly ignores them. But this is neither a simple satire of privilege nor a mock-provocative comedy of diversity and its discontents. It’s about a clash of values, about unresolvable contradictions. Or to put it another way, about good and evil.