Madres paralelas

The IMDb synopsis for 'Parallel Mothers' reads, "The story of two mothers who give birth the same day." I think this could use some work. It really doesn't sell the film at all. In fact it makes it sound painfully dull and uninteresting. You don't have to give anything away about the story. You just need to hint that there will be some reason for drama and to justify a film being made about this story.

The film is a strange one. There are some pretty serious things that happen, however the film seems to be doing its utmost to have characters under-react to everything. There is one particularly shocking moment in this film that I thought was going to trigger all kinds of hell. But it just kind of got an open-mouthed shock look for a little while and was then moved on from. They didn't even come back to it much at any point. There are numerous smaller occurrences like this too. It's very strange.

The drama was enough to carry a movie though and it did enough to keep me interested. The runtime pushed itself 15-20 minutes longer than needed. The whole epilogue sequence didn't really do anything for me and felt very unconnected to the rest of the film. There were better and more powerful ways they could have wrapped the film up for sure.

Penelope Cruz is very good as always. She has more than enough charm and charisma to carry a film by herself. She certainly payed a part in keeping the film afloat. This isn't one I'd go out of my way to recommend, but it's harmless and might be to some of your liking. 6/10.

Summary:

In this rather misunderstood film, Almodóvar consummates the audacity of associating the historical memory of the crimes of the Franco regime with a melodrama about intertwined motherhood, as intense as it is disturbingly contingent, tracing a perfect circle with identity at the center of the scene. The provocativeness of the film is made flesh in its protagonist Janis (a magnificent Penelope Cruz), a character subjected to tremendous dilemmas that express the dialectic, the contradictions and finally the synthesis between the private, the militant and the historical. And that Almodóvar does it, in a Spain that is witnessing the resurgence of the extreme right, is a declaration of principles.

Review:

Janis (Penelope Cruz) is a professional photographer. After a photo session for Arturo, a renowned forensic archaeologist (Israel Elejalde), she tries to interest him in the exhumation of Franco's victims buried in a mass grave in her hometown. Later, Janis, about to give birth, meets Ana, also in labor (Milena Smit), without suspecting that their destinies will be closely linked.

Undoubtedly, we are facing a film that is being quite misunderstood. Through an extremely intelligent and skillful script, Almodóvar has the audacity to intertwine the melodrama with the historical memory of the Franco regime. And he does it with a story about several intertwined motherhoods that are as contingent as they are assumed or abandoned, with identity at the center of the scene. The association that appears in the story between the intensity of maternal feeling, biology and chance is very disturbing.

The provocation of the film becomes flesh in Janis, a character subjected to tremendous dilemmas that express the dialectic, the contradictions and finally the synthesis between the private, the militant and the historical (dilemmas that Cruz expresses admirably through his gestures and his language bodily). Through her and the generational clash with Ana regarding historical memory, the director somehow updates and "everyday" a taboo and difficult topic for Spaniards even today, such as the Franco dictatorship and the impunity of its crimes.

Almodóvar has arrived as a filmmaker at an undeniable maturity, no longer interested in continuing to be an enfant terrible. Of course, this is not a comedy nor is it a choral story; the director cultivates a more relaxed style: he does not renounce melodrama (essential in his filmography) but he does renounce the tension and hubbub of his other films. He continues with his well-established handling of time lines, sometimes playing with the viewer by making him believe that some flashbacks are ellipses, for example. The fluidity of the narration is exemplary and avoids certain formalistic excesses and the somewhat pretentious structural sleights of several films from his last stage (a good example of this would be Bad Education), which created an emotional distance with the viewer. He always knows how to set up the camera and how and where to position his characters; he achieves beautiful effects with his fades that plunge the troubled Janis into the shadows at the end of some scenes.

In short, through the character of Janis, a new and great Almodovarian heroine, magnificently played by Penélope Cruz, and as noted above, Almodóvar carries out the operation of conflicting in a vibrant and moving way (at times close to a thriller) what private with the militant about a past that Spain has not finished processing and that it prefers to bury in oblivion. And that Almodóvar does it, with the forcefulness of the shovels and the bones, in a Spain that is witnessing the resurgence of the extreme right, is a declaration of principles.

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.

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.

There's a lot to enjoy about Parallel Mothers.

It has terrific performances, with Penelope Cruz stealing the show. The direction is so clean, crisp and stylish. It has a brilliant score.

The story is maybe the only area where I felt it was lacking. At times for me it was a little messy and had a few too many directions and prongs. There was a nice contrast in themes with the focus on the past set against new motherhood, but it was a little too disparate for me.

Despite this I did enjoy the story and film a lot. At its peak there were some gut wrenching emotional moments with razor sharp dialogue throughout.