Ema

Larrain has done better movies. This time, there's less to it than meets the eye and ear. The scenic city of Valparaiso is the best actor in the movie, while the pulsing soundtrack overplays its hand.

You can enjoy the dry humour, the local culture and swiftly shifting alliances, but the main problem is the eponymous female lead. Whose intersecting compulsions of narcissism, pyromania, dancing, and evil-doing, are sometimes hard to follow and not always easy to believe.

Self-absorbed Ema thinks she is a fascinating character. The director rather agrees - but he doesn't always make the case to the viewer.

As "Ema" (2019 release from Chile; 107 min.) opens, we see a traffic light on fire, literally. As the camera scans back, we see a woman (Ema) walking away while she is holding a flamethrower. We then get to know Ema, a modern ballet dancer, and her husband Gaston, a troupe's choreographer. They argue back and forth about the fate of their 9 yr. Old child Polo, whom they had adopted but recently was taken away by (or turned in to?) the Children's Protection Services. What did Polo do exactly? At this point we are less than 10 min. Into the movie but to tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from Chilean director Pablo Lorrain. In fact it's his first movie since directing hos Hollywood debut in 2016 with the widely acclaimed "Jackie". For "Ema", he returns to Chile, and more specifically the Pacific Ocean town Valparaiso (itself a character and star in this film). The film is a fascinating mix of a family and relationship drama on the one hand, and more abstract observations on the other hand, topped off with a generous dose of reggaeton music and modern dancing. Beware: the movie features a LOT of nudity, so if that is an issue for you, I'd suggest you check out something else. The cast is for us Americans completely unknown, but kudos to Mariana Di Girolamo, who is just fantastic in the title role.

As noted in the film's end credits, the entire movie was filmed in Valparaiso in September of 2018. It premiered a year later at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. Then COVID messed up a theatrical release in the US. Now 3 years later after shooting, the movie had gotten a limited theatrical release in the US. It opened this weekend at my local arthouse theater here in Cincinnati, and I couldn't wait to see it. The early Saturday evening screening where I saw this at turned out to be a private screening. I literally was the only person in the theater. Never mind. If you are in the mood for a top notch foreign family and relationship drama, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (while you still can), on VOD, or on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

Larrain is an excellent film maker and there is craft on display here for sure, visually, and with elements of the score (not the Reggaeton - it is almost worth watching to hear Bernal's rant against what is certainly the worst musical genre on earth), but this is a chore. No element of the story really grabs, the main character is obnoxious and irritating, and the rest are neither here nor there. Probably a 4.5 but I'll give the benefit as there are moments. Hopefully his next will be a return to form. In the meantime I'll watch Jackie again.

Some youngsters may get something out of this, certainly more than I. Somewhat alienated by the overlong 'dance' sequence at the start and the introduction of a most unattractive looking women who struck me as psychotic from the start did not bode well. As things became a little clearer regarding the 'lost' child, so concerns for all around the mother grew. Mixed with the horrors of the limitless damage a ruthless, manipulative and vengeful, crazy woman might wreak we have pyrotechnics. At once spectacular and diverting they also added to the feeling that all was terribly wrong. Unfortunately as the troubled Ema insinuated herself within the lives of those she wished to influence story development is paused for sex scenes. I understand that no film from Chile may be considered complete without such scenes and here they were well done but sat most uncomfortably within the story supposedly around the fate of a young boy. Not terrible then but for me this seemed confused and unfocused.

Larrain's movie Ema is very difficult to rate. It does have the potential of being an absolute masterpiece, it has its distinct voice, but somehow it did not convince me.

Ema has a wonderful technical style, it must be said. The photography is astounding, as is the coerography and the music that is featured in the movie. Larrain's crew definitely achieved something outstanding from that point of view. The cast was also wonderful. Bothe the lead actress and the veteran actor Gael Garcia Bernal gave us wonderful performances. It was particularly refreshing for me to see Bernal as a more mature character rather than the youngster he is well known for in Cuaron and Inarritu's movies.

It is hard to describe Ema's plot without spoiling the whole movie. What I can say is that Ema is about a woman, a modern dancer with a rebellious soul, which leads her to destructive tendencies (not self-destructive, I think this must be underlined). The film is literally mostly a portrayal of an unique female character, which is something undeniably positive, but it also has a very thin plot, that at the middle of the film seems to lead nowhere (although the action does have an ending of sorts). Ema is mostly a character study, but from a distance (the stoic approach of the performances doesn't allow the viewer to enter Ema's or the other character's thoughts). There is a touch of symbolism (pointed to by the beginning and ending scenes), but it felt either too evident, simple or too enigmatic to grasp.

It wouldn't surprise me if Ema ends up receiving a nomination in the Foreign Films category in the Oscars or any other award, because it most definitely is outstanding, but somehow, for once, I have to say that it wasn't exactly my cup of tea.