Beauty in Trouble

The title of director Jan Hřebejk’s masterful Czech drama, set soon after the Prague floods of 2002, is taken from a poem by Robert Graves, but Beauty in Trouble applies just as well to Marcela (played by a wonderful Geislerová) She’s a resilient mother married to a gruff guy (Roman Luknár) who runs a chop shop. (The sex is hot, the apartment spare.) Then, long story short, he’s clapped in jail. And she gets involved with a wealthy vintner (Abrhám) who takes her and her kids to Tuscany. This is a film of uncommon subtlety, fluidity, and specificity of character — so here’s to the good subtitling, too. A-