Movie Review by Sergio Martinez
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| Janis (Penélope Cruz, at the left) and Ana (Milena Smit) first met when both were at hospital waiting to give birth |
The most recent film by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has finally been released in this country, and it is worth commenting on.
At the
beginning of the film we find Janis (Penélope Cruz) who is a photographer for a
magazine, in a session portraying the forensic anthropologist Arturo Buendía
(Israel Elejalde). This anthropologist is part of the team that as of 2016 has
been excavating sites presumed to hide remains of prisoners killed at the end
of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Janis, whose mother had died young, had
been raised by her grandmother, who is one of the women still searching for her
husband's remains.
This encounter
eventually leads to an affair between Janis and Arturo, the latter, however, is
married and his wife is suffering from cancer. In an unplanned way, Janis
becomes pregnant and decides to go ahead with her pregnancy. It is in these new
circumstances, when she is in the hospital to give birth, that she meets a
younger woman, 17-year-old Ana (Milena Smit), also pregnant, although the
baby's father has not taken responsibility. Ana's mother, who visits her in the
hospital, is also not very supportive of her daughter.
A short time
later, we meet Janis, her relationship with Arturo did not go well, and soon
she notices a situation, regarding her daughter Cecilia, that will completely
change her relationship with the baby and worse, will shake her maternal
aspirations.
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| A secret situation regarding the two mothers' babies will be difficult for Janis to reveal |
It is at
that time that she will meet Ana again, but it will be very difficult for Janis
to share with her the secret that torments her about her daughter, even more so
when she learns that Ana's little daughter had died. Eventually that secret is
revealed and of course this causes a rift between the two mothers.
Parallel
Mothers is a very good film, using a melodramatic plot, the director manages to
build a story in which it is possible to scrutinize psychological aspects of
both women. The search for motherhood, in the case of Janis, possibly as
compensation for the absence of the mother who had died at the same age as
Janis Joplin -for whom she had named her daughter- and for the same cause. Ana,
on the other hand, embodies the contemporary girl, not very clear in her
objectives, preoccupied with her immediate survival and gratification, products
of her mother's indifference and lack of affection.
Possibly the
only somewhat forced element of the story is the relationship that emerges
between Janis and Ana, for which there was no precedent in Janis' previous
behavior, at least. Although it can well be understood as a rapprochement of
two women facing what they see as their respective losses.
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| Memory and motherhood interplay in Parallel Mothers |
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