The story of two mothers who give birth the same day.
Chuck says:
I was speaking recently with a friend about the films of Pedro Almodovar and we found it difficult to describe his work to someone who’d never seen any of his movies. Infusing soap opera elements into the stories of his troubled characters’ lives, there’s an air of magic about his work that’s hard to put into words. However, once you see one or two of his films, you’re able to recognize his distinctive approach. His latest, “Parallel Mothers” is trademark Almodovar but with a political angle as well, one that addresses Spain’s troubled past as well as gender politics.
Penelope Cruz – never better – is Janis, a forty-something photographer who, as fate and Almodovar’s ever expedient approach to storytelling would have it, is assigned to shoot Arturo (Israel Elejalde), a dashing forensic anthropologist. Seems that outside the village where she was raised there is a mass grave in which she believes her grandfather and others were brutally shot and buried, victims of the fascist regime that controlled Spain, some 80 years ago. Janis and many others long to have their loved ones exhumed and given a proper burial. Arturo agrees to help, they meet a few times, sparks fly and before you know it, she’s pregnant with her married lover’s child.
Later, when Janis goes to the hospital to deliver, she meets Ana (Milena Smit), a troubled teen who, coincidentally, is going through the same situation. She’s well-aware that she’s a burden to her self-absorbed mother Teresa (AItana Sanchez-Gijon) and is not welcome in her father’s home. Janis senses the girl is in distress and after each gives birth to a daughter, they promise to keep in touch, unaware the fate has bound them together in ways they can’t imagine.
Two devastating plot twists take the story in intriguing directions, the women forced to deal with circumstances that have the power to drive them apart or bring them closer together. Almodovar’s films are always densely plotted but they never seem overly long and seldom drag. That’s certainly the case here, as “Mothers” moves briskly. And while there are a great many moving parts, whenever a new wrinkle in the story is introduced, it only sucks the viewer in further.
Cruz has always been one of the screen’s great beauties but there’s a luminous quality to her here that’s absolutely captivating. Here fierce approach to Janis and the material may have something to do with it, as she radiates a sense of energy throughout. Smit proves to be a worthy screen partner for her, convincing in capturing Ana’s growth from lost, immature teen to a capable, sincere woman is genuine.
So much of the film focuses on Janis and Ana’s trials that the subplot involving the excavation of the mass grave is nearly forgotten. However, it dominates the action of the third act, as Almodovar masterfully weaves the two stories together, resulting in a genuinely moving statement on how a country’s violent past reverberates far into the future, that the dangers of ignoring history only result in our repeating it.
Yes, it’s a bit of cliché, however the way in which Almodovar’s unforgettable final shot drives home this oft unheeded lesson cuts to the core. To paraphrase another cliché, it takes a village to raise a generation; conversely, it only takes inaction from them to destroy it as well. In the end, “Mothers” is a plea to prevent this and an indictment of those who would allow it, a powerful work that reminds us that the cost of keeping our heads in the sand has never been higher.
3 1/2 Stars
Pam says:
Never has such a simple sentence — “the story of two mothers who give birth the same day” — have such complexities within each and every word. Seemingly ripped from the headlines, this story of two women who, under very different circumstances, learn of the realities of their situation. Their relationship given this unprecedented event, gives pause to every parent and thanks to Pedro Almodovar’s exceptional screenwriting and directorial skills, we walk in their shoes and experience their evocative conundrum. Of course, Penelope Cruz’s performance ushers us into her life providing us with the details we need to empathize with her. With a multilayered story delving into cultural and topical issues, “Parallel Mothers” is a film certain to be on the minds of Oscar voters soon.
4 Stars
