Tries to cram too many ingredients into one small pot.

An intimate, good-humored ethnic comedy like numerous others but cuts deeper than expected.

Adobo doesn't exoticize the culture so much as leaven it with a sense of ordinariness.

The film is reasonably entertaining, though it begins to drag two-thirds through, when the melodramatic aspects start to overtake the comedy.

Marinated in clichés and mawkish dialogue.

Offers traditional cinematic gab about marital status, sexual orientation, nationality and degree of fulfillment.

Though clearly well-intentioned, this cross-cultural soap opera is painfully formulaic and stilted.

As the film loses its grip on its multiple stories, the title begins to suggest an overheated stew bubbling out of its pot. By the end of the film, the intersecting dramas and histrionic performances have spilled all over the floor, so to speak.

The movie is stiff and schmaltzy and clumsily directed.