193. Ema; movie review

EMA
Cert 15
107 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, nudity, language

Call me naive but I had no idea that adopted children could simply be given back.
After watching Pablo Larrain's Ema, I read of a case of a woman who returned her 12-year-old to authorities even though she had been his mother since he was a baby.
I had believed that adoption was the equivalent of birth. You take the child for rough or smooth and iron out problems through parenting.
Anyway, I was wrong and Ema's premise is harrowing but apparently possible.
I found the movie riveting even though I can understand why some viewers may dismiss it as absurd or even compare it to soft porn.
Mariana Di Girolamo plays the hedonistic title character who has given up her son (Cristián Suárez) after he attacked her sister (Giannina Fruttero).
She claims there are other reasons behind the heart-wrenching decision but they become lost in a sea of sex, dance and self-obsession.
Di Girolamo is excellent as the teacher who has a devoted and alluring circle of lithe friends and an older husband (Gael García Bernal) who is struggling to be on the same page.
Sex is a key element of her life because she uses her body as a means of getting her own way.
Indeed, it seems that she needs to look attractive and be surrounded by handsome people who have few boundaries.
However, her manipulation reaches such shattering depths that it implies she has no concept of right and wrong.
Meanwhile, she dances, takes drugs and even expresses pyromania.
As I suggested, Ema is a strange movie but Larrain ties it together cleverly and then, when all appears to be resolved, leaves us in the air again.
That is a minor frustration - it was a film which had me fully immersed.

Reasons to watch: Intense and expertly acted
Reasons to avoid: Goes over the same ground too often

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: Yes
Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? In as many as a quarter of adoptions of teens and a significant number of younger child adoptions, the parents ultimately decide they don’t want to keep the child.

The final word. Pablo Larrain: "“(Ema) is like a labyrinth where you don’t exactly understand everything. But it’s hypnotic somehow, so you follow it without really understanding, and you get to connect the dots (by the end).” NME

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