Antigua vida mía

Two upper middle class women from Buenas Aires are trapped in relationships that aren't working well. One is in an abusive relationship, the other is selfish towards her family. The catalyst for change is the murder of the abusive husband by his wife, Cecilia Roth's character. Her best friend, Ana Belen, tries to help her through this process, and by doing so has to tackle her own problems. Cecilia Roth manages to portray very well the shifts of emotion between ignorant bliss and fearfulness. Ana Belen, is truly amazing, as she balances on a the thin line between selfish stuck up diva, and self determined caring confident woman. There are some wonderful scenes shot in Guatamala as well as a nice stylish decor and wardrobe in Argentine. The story loses its intensity from time to time, and tends to become a bit too over-dramatic at times, but in general it is a very pleasant film to watch. The main attraction though are the two leading actresses who carry this story forward with such an amazing power that you won't want to miss one moment of their dialogs.

I'm going to be unfair to this film, since I saw it when it came out in 2001, and never again. In my memory is one of the most enjoyable films I've ever seen, maybe because I love (I mean even now) both leading ladies in it.

Cecilia Roth is an excellent actress and Ana Belen a superb Diva. I don't know if the title of this film encloses a pun in it with its double meaning: "Antigua vida mía" says "That Old Life of Mine", but with the addition of a comma: "Antigua, vida mía", it refers to the Guatemalan city Antigua, so, the title changes completely its meaning: "Antigua, beloved city of mine". Nice.

In my recollection, Ana Belen's character was the showy one, a total diva, never letting down her stage persona, no matter the situation and I never forgot her due to the strange sensation I got when looking at her fabulous, larger than life, incredible set of teeth: Optical White, as white as an unpolluted spread of snow under a bright sun.

Was that effect due to a light trick or the work of an overzealous dentist? It was a bit jarring and disconcerting because those super white teeth made her character unreal, artificial, a sort of Chelsea Cat smile in "Alice in Wonderland", where the cat disappears in thin air while its smile floats alone as an afterthought, and in her case, when she was in some dark environment, we saw only her teeth flashing on the screen.

This effect was unnatural, specially next to the earthiness of Cecilia Roth. But again, Ana Belen was a DIVA in this movie, with capital letters (as she is in real life, something that helped enormously to the believability of her character on the screen) so, maybe that was alright for that kind of larger than life figure.

I adored this movie, and found it spectacular in 2001. I don't know what my reaction could be today if I see it again, but now, these few lines are my contribution to those unjustly few comments to this above average, excellent movie that deserved a better, much better consideration.

Walking down on memory lane, I still qualify this movie with a ten (excellent).