Salma Hayek Pinault can make a wealthy woman's impatience funny without softening it. We value that comic sharpness; too many of her roles have settled for presenting her as a spectacle.
Fi1m perspective
In Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023), Salma Hayek Pinault plays Maxandra Mendoza as a woman who has had enough of being told no by lawyers. She has money, a theatre and an urge to get her own way, and Hayek Pinault finds the humour in her demands. She is good company in a film we have considerable reservations about. Her arguments with Channing Tatum have more life than the script's talk about art and desire.
The earlier route through Hollywood gave that comic ability less room. Robert Rodriguez's Desperado (1995) was the breakthrough, with Hayek Pinault playing Carolina opposite Antonio Banderas. In Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), she was Santanico Pandemonium, whose snake dance made her a spectacle within the film. We found the crime-and-horror mixture worth the evening, though its second half loses some of the first's grip. Her subsequent typecasting in sexy or exotic roles restricted her opportunities to be funny.
Frida (2002) marks a useful turn: Hayek Pinault both produced the film and played Frida Kahlo. That producing work matters in a career so often constrained by casting. The later credits include the comedy Grown Ups (2010) and the blockbuster Eternals (2021), in which she plays Ajak. We would be wary of mistaking that variety for consistently good opportunities.
Steven Soderbergh's opening dance in Magic Mike's Last Dance gives us the clearest reason to keep watching. Soderbergh directs, shoots and edits, letting us see Tatum's effort as he lifts and turns her among the furniture. We were absorbed by the dance because we could see the physical work behind it. Hayek Pinault is playing the customer rather than the dancer this time.
The difficulty comes when Reid Carolin's script starts supplying speeches about art, desire and what women want. There is some chemistry between the leads, but the dialogue keeps getting in its way. Hayek Pinault remains funny without being able to make the film move any faster. A comedy that let her spend more time arguing would be welcome.
Biography
Salma Hayek Pinault is a Mexican and American actress and film producer. She was born on 2 September 1966 in Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico. She began her career in Mexico with a starring role in the telenovela Teresa (1989–1991) and the film Midaq Alley (1995).
She moved to the United States in the early 1990s and gained prominence with her role in Desperado (1995). Her portrayal of Frida Kahlo in the 2002 biopic Frida, which she also produced, earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress, the first for a Mexican actress in that category. She has appeared in films including From Dusk till Dawn (1996), Wild Wild West (1999), Grown Ups (2010), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017), Eternals (2021) and Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023), as well as voicing characters in the Puss in Boots films.
Hayek Pinault has also produced and directed for television, winning a Daytime Emmy Award for directing The Maldonado Miracle (2004). She is married to businessman François-Henri Pinault.
