Miss Flicks

Parallel Mothers: Film Review

Penelope Cruz has had a long-running working relationship with Pedro Almodóvar for many years and they have reunited once more for Parallel Mothers (or Madres Paralelas).

Cruz plays photographer Janis, who shares a hospital room with teenager Ana (Milena Smit) when they’re about to have their babies and they subsequently give birth to their daughters on the same day. Janis is excited about becoming a single mother while Ana is terrified so they exchange contact details and stay in touch. The film charts their lives over the next year or so.

From that premise, you can possibly guess what’s going to happen or what the big reveal is but I still enjoyed watching how we got there. Plus, Almodóvar seems aware that the reveal is obvious and predictable so it comes relatively early on and so much more happens after it – it gets very complicated and dramatic!

I was most interested in how Janis and Ana’s journey evolved over the course of the story – it changes a lot and this central friendship is what glues the film together. Their performances are fantastic. Cruz does a terrific job as the conflicted mother who is torn between doing what she wants to do and what she should do. She wrestles with that decision and it visibly weighs her down. Smit’s Ana is young, impressionable, and lost and desperately wants to be loved. She comes across as needy and vulnerable compared to the strong, independent Janis.

There’s a subplot about Janis spearheading a campaign to excavate a mass grave in her home village and that is given far too much screentime. It’s a worthy subject (one that possibly means more to Spanish viewers) but it feels like it should have been in a different movie.

Almodóvar completely switches the focus to this towards the end and I felt frustrated because I wanted to know more about Janis and Ana. There were certain juicy conversations I wanted to see but these are skipped over for this subplot. Their interactions at the dig site gave us some hints about the state of their friendship but I would have liked more. Because of my frustrations, I felt that the film overstayed its welcome.

While the central story is rich and the two lead performances are excellent, the subplot needed to go as it ruins the ending.

In cinemas Friday 28th January