All About My Mother

Occasionally one sees a movie one wishes one could direct if one were a film director. This is one of those.

The movie is a great example of story telling. It tells the story of a woman, Manuela and her experiences with her 17 yr old son named Esteban, the transvestite father of her son named Lola and then an infant also named Esteban, also fathered by Lola. The movie is knit together remarkably by the play, A Streetcar named Desire and is chilling & poignant in its realistic portrayal of the lives of the characters that constitute the story.

There is the brief but sweet role of Esteban which would be the heartbreaker for any romantic, who sets out to pen down the story of his mother, from which we get the movie's title. There is Agrado, another transvestite who tries to makes life agreeable for everyone and hence gets her name. She is downright fantastic in one scene, when she takes over the audience and tells them her life story, when the screening of the play has to be cancelled. Then there is Rosa, played by Penelope Cruz as the young nun, who wants to go to El Salvador, whose life altered by Lola, the father of the Manuela's son, Esteban. There are other characters including the actress, Huma who plays the main role in the play, the mother of Rosa, Huma's lover & co actress, Nina, etc all of whom make the movie an absolutely riveting story. My particular favourite is Rosa's father, who asks Rosa & then Manuela, their age and height and nods as if everything was in order and walks off, silently.

Frequently movies which handle issues of sex & sexuality, either go overboard or only make subtle references to it, while skirting the issue of acknowledging such a thing. All About My Mother strikes a bold note. There are multiple references to the alternate sexuality as well as the sexual behaviour of the characters, but all of it is handled deftly by the director without for a moment making the viewer, shift in his seat.

Must See, if only to learn to tell a story.

Haven’t you already run to your DVD store yet?!