Mères parallèles

Very good turn by Pedro Almodovar, one of his best films of the last years.

Its a very unpredictable film that seemingly is about a certain topic and turns out to deliver something completely different. An interesting experiment that pays off very well because at one point you realize to watch a completely different movie than you thought you would. Genius.

The acting was great. I really loved Penelope Cruz who was as expected great. Almodovar truly knows how to put his muse in scene. But also Milena Smit was great and both had a wonderful on screen chemistry. Its a fantastic screenplay and had many good elements like a very decent cinematography and great score.

One little issues I had with it was that it had several loose ends, but I think thats because of the nature of the film and how it is written so I think its nothing big to blame it for. I really enjoyed the characters, although they sometimes made weird decsisions but they were extremely well created. A must see and a typical Pedro Almodovar, although not a very typical movie.

Most directors reach a peak somewhere during their career. Their films stop improving from then on. The remarkable thing with Pedro Almodovar is that, at 72, he still doesn't seem to have reached his peak. The older he gets, the more intense and pure his films become.

In 'Madres Paralelas', all the usual Almodovar ingredients are blended together exquisitely. An unorthodox story about women and motherhood, superb acting from Penelope Cruz, tasteful clothing and interiors, beautiful cinematography and intelligent dialogues with surprising twists. But this time, Almodovar adds a little extra: a subtle attack on the right-leaning political parties in Spain. The former prime minister Mariano Rajoy is even mentioned, which seems at odds with the fact that Almodovars cinematographic universe is usually uncoupled from modern day issues.

The point Almodovar wants to make about Spain, is intelligently integrated into the story. It is about death, war and coping with past sins. The contrast with the other themes in the film is striking: we see Cruz, and the other parallel mother Milena Smit, involved in childbirth, friendship and rethinking their future lives.

A nice characteristic of this film is that it's all about women designing their own lives. Which is a nice change: most films are male-centred. The only male character of any importance is subject to the whims of women. In one funny moment, he tells Cruz that he wants to have a child with her, but not yet. To which she replies that it doesn't really matter, because the unborn baby is already there.

'Madres Paralelas' is a relatively unspectacular film, because in consists mostly of people talking, reacting to each other and showing their emotions. But it takes extraordinary directing skills to make such a film, and fascinate audiences by it. This is one of those films that are just very good, because they are made by an experienced craftsman who knows what he's doing.

Almodovar's gift is to take a soap-opera storyline - two mothers and their babies - and give it a glossy sheen that makes it seem almost fresh. All the cast take their roles seriously. Penelope Cruz is the best of them; on screen she has an incandescence that reminds me of Sophia Loren's early films.

There's a background story in which Cruz's lover is trying to get permission to excavate the grave of some villagers savagely killed in the early years of the Civil War. I rather wish that this had been given more screen time. The final scene of this movie is nothing less than magnificent.

Parallel Mothers

This was not one of Almodovar's finest movies, the characters were superficial and lacked any sort of emotional intelligence, in fact they were verging on caricatures of human beings.

The plot was quite bizarre lacking any heft, something about a genetic legacy and not being able to deny history. The plot took a wrong turn when it fixated about the paternity for one baby but the other baby "oh it looks like my grandmother", was sufficient.

The dialogue skated on the surface and we had some strange scenes to titillate the viewer, I wasn't convinced. Had it not been for the fabulous Penelope Cruz who threw her all into the project this would've been a Spanish turkey.

I'm giving this a weak 6 outta 10, meaning if you are an Almodovar fan you have to see it.

Two women put in the same room in a hospital during labour form a friendship. One is a successful photographer the other is a lonely ignored single child of a famous actress.

Janice is also trying to get the mass grave of her great grandfather exhumed but the Spanish civil war historical memory law is making that difficult.

This is a great movie of complex situations and how two women have to deal with the realities of the cards life has dealt them.

Penelope Cruz is up for an Oscar for this role, in my mind well deserved.