Roma

I stumbled upon "Roma" a few nights ago on the HBO Latin channel. I seldom watch Spanish programming, but when I clicked on the program grid for some information on the film, I saw the movie's locale was Buenos Aires. My parents were portenos from Buenos Aires and I have been to Buenos Aires a few times, most recently last October, so I decided to watch.

The movie itself did not impress me. It was "ok"...a talky character study. Not a bad movie, but nothing out of the ordinary either. But...I enjoyed the movie immensely because the actors spoke just as my parents spoke, in the Argentine "porteno" dialect of Buenos Aires. It was like going back to my childhood. I speak Spanish reasonably well (but English is my "first" language) and I hear people speaking Spanish all the time at work, but they are not from Argentina. As soon as the movie started and I heard the actors speaking, I could tell is was that old familiar Argentine dialect...the cadence, the inflections, etc., are so unique. I told my sister about the movie...even though she understands little Spanish, I told her to watch or rent this movie if she could because she most likely would be transported back to our childhood as I was.

Elaine Clearwater FL

I happened to watch this film on "the small screen" in Spanish, which was somewhat of a challenge. My linguistic limitations notwithstanding, I felt intrigued enough to put in the effort to follow the dialogue, pacing, and emotional pull. I have not seen other works by this director, but felt rewarded for my time. It was refreshing to see a film discuss philosophy and intellectual points in the context of a Latin American family. The plot revolves around a mother and son through time, utilizing media references such as scenes from the film Grapes of Wrath to embellish this central theme. I enjoyed revisiting the 60s and 70s in Roma, the classical lines and designs, Jazz and literature references. A thinking person's film, regardless of one's language capacity.

This is a beautiful film. A first-rate script, first-rate direction, first-rate photography, top-notch acting by simply everyone. This films makes you "taste" good emotional music (classical, tango and jazz), and makes you "taste" great literature since the Director throws all this into a pot and cooks a delicious real-life recipe. The base of the film is the true and deep love of a mother for his only son, who she believes has a relevant stage in history destined for him. I cannot but strongly recommend that you see this film which will keep you watching and keep you delighted throughout the 2 1/2 hours which pass so fast (than the real time) you could swear you have just discovered Einstein's relativity theory to be utterly true!

This movie is Aristarain's best in my humble opinion, what a beatiful picture.

An aging, caustic (but good hearted) author has a young writer type up his autobiography, and we see his mostly Utopian childhood, the loss of his beloved father, his love affairs in his early 20s, and his relationship with his wonderful mother, the title character.

All of this is set against the background of the changing, ever worsening politics of Argentina.

A film I couldn't quite love, but also couldn't help but quite like.

It's a little shallow for a 2:30 hour epic tale of a man's life, but it's also always interesting, and the whole thing is well acted , and has both a charm and sadness, along with characters who can sometimes be surprising. I enjoyed it more, not less on a second viewing, which makes sense since the plot isn't what's special, but the details.