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Dec 23, 2021 · Their relationship will pass through friendship, love, devastating loss, deceit and despair. The central plot of “Parallel Mothers” is vintage Almodóvar: a skein of reversals, revelations ...
- Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar’s latest movie stars Penélope Cruz, left, as...
- Pedro Almodóvar
Parallel Mothers. Two women, Janis and Ana, coincide in a hospital room where they are going to give birth. Both are single and became pregnant by accident. Janis, middle-aged, doesn't regret it ...
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- Pedro Almodóvar
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- Penélope Cruz
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- Verdict
By Tara Bennett
Updated: Dec 23, 2021 11:21 pm
Posted: Dec 23, 2021 11:19 pm
Parallel Mothers debuts in theaters on Dec. 24.
As is the case with most Pedro Almodóvar movies, Parallel Mothers is an unexpected, sometimes crazy ride that keeps you off-kilter to the very end. A contemporary melodrama, Almodóvar peppers his story with a medley of disparate topics including but not limited to the ongoing fallout from the Spanish Civil War, middle-aged motherhood, sexual experimentation, and generational trauma and privilege. None of that should work together but in the hands of writer/director Almodóvar, he mostly succeeds in connecting them together into a coherent and deeply absorbing drama that packs plenty of emotional punch.
Almodóvar retains his gift for telling women-centric stories, and casting them with actresses who make even the most heightened of stories feel grounded and at least emotionally relatable. Parallel Mothers features his frequent muse Penélope Cruz as Janis Martinez, a single, 40-something, high-end magazine photographer. On behalf of her family and the town she grew up in, she takes on a personal side project trying to get the government involved in confirming, and exuming, a mass grave of murdered Francisco Franco dissenters, including her kin. She connects with Arturo (Israel Elejalde), who is part of a state-run anthropological project that is cataloging and documenting similar sites around the country, to get the site on a waiting list. The pair connects in a more carnal way too, despite his married status. And surprise, Janis ends up pregnant. Desperate to be a mother, she breaks off the affair after telling him he does not need to be involved and she goes all in on her shot at motherhood.
Nine months later in the hospital in labor, Janis meets her roommate Ana (Milena Smit), a 20-something single mother who is a lot less excited about her own impending motherhood. She’s got an extremely self-centered, actress mother (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), a father who kicked her out, and no real prospects. The polar opposite women bond over their shared labor and become friends after the birth of their daughters.
It’s that aftermath that Almodóvar is most interested in exploring, as Janis and Ana are both resilient and dedicated mothers. Both want to give their daughters the kinds of childhoods they didn’t have, with Ana’s mother, Teresa, serving as an ongoing object lesson in the truth that not all women are cut out to be parents. What’s refreshing about Almodóvar’s approach is that he keeps peeling back the layers on all the women, who are all remarkably candid about their sins and failures leading them to this point. As their lives dip in and out of one another’s, Almodóvar is making a subtle but strong case about the traumas that shape people, and how those experiences infect the next generation even when it isn’t intentional.
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Julieta
Parallel Mothers is a really engaging watch with plenty of unforeseen story turns that seem incredibly random at first, but ultimately come together in a very intentional way. Penélope Cruz gives a powerful and beautifully relatable performance as a woman navigating some very messy life choices with wisdom and empathy. She’s truly something to watc...
Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Aug 31, 2022. Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies. “Parallel Mothers” shines brightest as a female-centric examination of motherhood, complete with all its ...
Jan 27, 2022 · Dir: Pedro Almodóvar. Starring: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma. Cert 15, 123 minutes. Of all the women Penélope Cruz has brought to life for ...
- 1 min
- Clarisse Loughrey
Sep 1, 2021 · The opening film at this year’s Venice Film Festival, “Parallel Mothers” offers many delights, one of which is that it ushers Almodóvar fans back to his comfortingly familiar milieu. Once ...
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Jan 15, 2022 · Parallel Mothers Review: Almodóvar's Spanish Drama Hits All The Right Notes. Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers beautifully expresses the blissful highs and aching lows of motherhood, delicately told through the story of two single women who fatefully shared a hospital room. The Spanish film masterfully combines vivid imagery and emotional ...
