35. Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas); movie review

 

PARALLEL MOTHERS (MADRES PARALELAS)

Cert 15

123 minutes

BBFC advice: Contains strong sex, references to sexual violence

Regrettably, I told Mrs W not to bother with Parallel Mothers because its trailer gave the impression that it would be a dull art house film.

Boy, I did Pedro Almodóvar's movie a disservice because this is an intense and intriguing take on motherhood with plenty of surprises.

I swear that Penélope Cruz becomes a better actress and even more beautiful with age. She is wonderful in this film.

She plays a respected fashion photographer who is working with a prominent archaeologist (Israel Elejalde) on a project to excavate a field in her home town.

This is where her great-grandfather and others were believed to have been massacred during the Spanish civil war.

She and the archaeologist have a tempestuous affair resulting in a pregnancy which freaks him out because he is married.

Desperate for a child, she goes ahead and, on the cusp of giving birth befriends a teenage mum (Milena Smit) in hospital.

These are the 'parallel mothers' and become unlikely allies as they set about bringing up babies without fathers.

Almodóvar beautifully builds both characters, bringing through curious twists to both their past and present.

Smit plays the teenager with aplomb. Rebellious but vulnerable and deeply sensitive, bordering on paranoid.

Cruz, meanwhile, is superb as her character agonises over decisions she has made and the life she wants to live.

In many ways, Parallel Mothers is a quiet film, centred on three or four key locations and with comparatively little action.

And yet, it is magnetic with multiple twists and has several heartrending scenes.

It could do well come award season.

Reasons to watch: Cruz at her very best

Reasons to avoid: It meanders a bit

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: Yes

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? As a young man, Almodóvar moved to Madrid with the hopes of attending the Spanish national film school, but it had recently been closed under dictator Francisco Franco’s rule. With this avenue blocked, he purchased a Super-8 camera and began making his own short films.

The final word. Penélope Cruz: "For 30 or 40 minutes you don’t know if you’re watching a thriller, film noir. Anything but melodramatic. It’s so dry and you can almost feel the beat of their hearts, and it’s really suffocating. It’s so clever he did that as a director. The whole thing is planned from beginning to end, every single shot, the temperature of everything." Indie Wire

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