“You have complicated things too much.” So says one character to another in Pedro Almodovar’s Parallel Mothers. It’s a criticism that could also be made of the film. Almodovar’s moving melodramas almost always have theatrical twists and turns, to be fair. And for much of its running time, this tale of two pregnant women (Penelope Cruz and Milena Smit) who share a room in a maternity ward and give birth on the same day holds us enthralled with its surprises and revelations. But a sudden, third-act shift in their relationship throws the film off balance—not necessarily because of the particulars, but because the movie fairly quickly seems to lose interest in the ramifications for its two main characters. (Instead, Almodovar returns to a haunting framing device involving the discovery of an unmarked grave, dating from Franco’s regime, in the home village of the Cruz character.) Of course, Cruz is luminous—especially as she embraces a maternal side that is at once nurturing and ferocious. And if overall the filmmaking is a bit muted for Almodovar, he and cinematographer Jose Luis Alcaine do employ a lovely, recurring, extremely gradual fade to black on Cruz, so that the last thing on the screen to receive any light is frequently her face. It’s Marlene Dietrich-level iconography for a movie star deserving of it.
(12/22/2021)
