Parallel Mothers

Starring: Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejaldo, Aitana Sanchez-Gijob, Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano
Directed by: Pedro Almodovar
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
2021

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two women (Penelope Cruz, Milena Smit) give birth on the same day and start a friendship that soon turns in unexpected directions.

Review:

Tim: There's a good bit to unpack in Pedro Almodovar's Parallel Mothers. This is a film that has numerous clear strengths, but it also fizzles out a bit in the end. It's a more complicated one to review, because there's much I loved about it, but a few odd choices hurt the film's final quality. Still, this is an easy movie to talk about- it offers up much more than just the surface level.

In some ways, it does feel like this is a tale about two halves. The first half of the film is outstanding. We meet these characters, and embark on a twisting, turning, wonderfully dramatic, soap opera-like story that had me on the edge of my seat. I often couldn't believe what was happening in the film and I was riveted by the winding story it was telling. I loved the movie in those moments. It offered up such a compelling, surprising, unexpected story. It reminded me of how few film narratives keep me off balance. You go into movies having seen variations of it all before, so you pretty much know what to expect. That was never the case here. Almodovar's film was continually surprising.

Now the second half of the film seems to forget this. The narrative settles down and instead of continuing to challenge, it feels like the various strands get wrapped up so easily, so conveniently. I had an increasingly difficult time believing what I was seeing, why the characters would act this way. It felt too storybook, too inauthentic. The messiness of the first half of the movie is wonderful, which offers a disjointed contrast to the back-half. It feels like the script spent all its energy in the early stages, and then was just looking to wrap things up and end the movie. It's a bizarre thing to describe, but to love a movie's twists and turns, movement up-and-down quite a bit, and then to see it all kind of flatten out is disappointing. It also feels at times like this is two different films. The main story of the parallel mothers is outstanding, but we get these bookend sequences about Spain's civil war and bodies buried in unmarked graves. I'm sure this was meaningful to Spanish viewers and I see some light parallels between these mothers- the idea of family, etc. However, it never feels authentically connected. It feels forced, and it gives the movie this disjointed feel. We want to see how the tension and the craziness of the situation is resolved, but the end of the film is focused on finding these bodies. It never really gels like Almodovar intended. It makes the movie feel like it fizzles out, verses ending on a truly powerful note.

I must highlight the spectacular performance of Penelope Cruz, though. I'm not sure I've ever seen her better than she is here. She gives a beautifully emotional, authentic performance. Her character goes through a lot in the course of this film and it offers Cruz an opportunity to showcase her range as an actress. She's fantastic- connecting her character to the audience and building a tightly wound emotional connection with her character. The script doesn't help her as much near the end, but this is a truly excellent performance. Cruz was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and I'm very pleased that she got that acclaim. The role might not be flamboyant enough for her to be a true contender, but this is a performance well-deserving of praise.

I thought Milena Smit was solid, but it's hard to watch her opposite such an experienced actress like Cruz, giving a tremendous performance. Smit isn't able to match Cruz's talent on screen, so she comes across as obviously weaker. Her performance isn't bad, she's just clearly multiple levels below her costar. Israel Elejalde gives a nice supporting performance- he's warm, yet frustrating at times. It felt like he gave an appropriately layered performance. Aitan Sanchez-Gijon has some excellent moments where her talent is firmly on display. As a whole, the cast is certainly effective.

In addition to Cruz's nomination, the film also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. It went 0-2 at the award ceremony, but 2 nominations is impressive. That speaks to the effectiveness of Almodovar's film.

Now, while I absolutely enjoyed Parallel Mothers, I loved the first half and was frustrated with how it concluded. I think that's enough to drop the film half a point in the final rating. In the end, I believe is a good movie that has a few frustrating flaws that seem to knock the wind out of it a bit. My thoughts on the movie at the end were substantially beneath where I was at the midpoint. Still, let's celebrate good movies, which this one is.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



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