"Parallel Mothers" -- Movie Review

 

On the closing night of The 59^th New York Film Festival, I attended the North American Premiere of the new drama by Pedro Almodóvar, “Parallel Mothers”, starring Penélope Cruz. 

Synopsis

When two women give birth to a baby on the same day, their lives continue to intertwine in many mysterious and unexpected ways.  

Story

Janis (Cruz) is photographing Arturo (Israel Elejalde) for a magazine.  After the shoot, Janis engages Arturo, a forensic anthropologist, to investigate something of a personal nature.  Many of the people from the small town where she was raised know of a mass grave site where many victims of the Spanish Civil War are buried – one of them is a relative of hers and she would like the bodies exhumed.  As they spend increasing time together to discuss the project, the two become romantically involved.  The result is that Janis is pregnant with Arturo’s baby – a pleasant surprise for Janis because as she is nearing 40, she has long yearned to be a mother.      

When the time comes, Janis finds she is sharing a hospital room with Ana (Milena Smit), a teenager who also has an unplanned pregnancy – but unlike Janis, she is distraught over having a child at this point in her life.  With Ana’s mother preoccupied with her acting career, Janis tries to take over as Ana’s support system.  The two women wind up giving birth on the same day; when they are discharged from the hospital, they exchange numbers and agree to keep in touch so they can share this unfamiliar experience with each other.  Later, when Janis decides to take a DNA test, the results report that not only is Arturo not the father of her baby but that she is not the mother, either.

After a while, Janis and Ana lose contact, but one day accidentally run into each other at a café near Janis’ home.  Ana informs Janis that she has moved out of her mother’s home – and that her baby passed away due to crib death.  Janis offers her a job as a live-in babysitter for her daughter; Ana agrees and they become close friends.  Eventually, Janis decides to have Ana take the same DNA test that she herself had previously taken.  When the shocking results come in, will Janis lose both her friendship and her child if she tells Ana the truth or will she keep it a secret?  

Review

First off, Almodovar is both an immensely gifted and prolific filmmaker and any contributions he makes to this medium deserve to be cherished.  Having said that, “Parallel Mothers” is something that’s both melodramatic and overwrought.  There are some things that really require you to suspend your disbelief in order to go along with the story.  For example, why wasn’t Ana more suspicious when Janis swabbed her mouth for the DNA test?  Real life is certainly full of coincidences.  However, there feel like too many coincidences occur in this movie to make it seem realistic.  It would also be interesting to learn why Janis was photographing a forensic anthropologist for her magazine in the first place.      

From a story structure perspective, the somewhat abrupt right turn to the excavation in the third act felt a bit awkward.  One might easily title this movie “Parallel Stories”.  It seems that Almodovar wanted to make two completely different motion pictures and struggled to find a way to shoehorn both stories into a single film.  It probably would have been better to have made two separate pictures as each story is compelling enough; both wind up getting short shrift, which is really too bad.  It may be the case that Almodovar couldn’t find a better way to sufficiently wrap up the motherhood story and sustain an entire motion picture on the political issue that is a subplot.  On a positive note, Cruz is stunning and perfect in this role. 

Following the screening, there was an interview with Almodovar, Cruz and Smit.  The director said that although he became aware of Cruz many years ago, he didn’t have too many roles for her at the time because she was too young; now that she has matured, she is the perfect age.  Almodovar added that Cruz reminded him of Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani.  Cruz said that she had wanted to work with Almodovar since she was ten years old; eventually, after she made a couple of movies, he contacted her for some work.  They have remained connected ever since.  Smit said that there is little known about the history of their country especially in terms of fascism and the Civil War and that it’s important for people of her generation to see this film.