All About My Mother (1999)

After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret Fetzer Amazon.com

Mama Said There'd Be Gays Like This

Pedro Almodovar's masterpiece, All About My Mother, avoids wide, well-lit boulevards, choosing instead to shed light on its large, complex subject by trolling life's darkest and most unsettling alleys. (Instead of June Cleaver you get Hermana Rosa, a knocked-up nun.) The film is brilliantly crafted, visually spellbinding, full of lovely literary and film allusions, funny, poignant, and heartbreakingly real. The irony here is that, by gleefully thrashing stereotypes and searching where nobody else would, Almodovar offers a portrait of motherhood so authentic it can even withstand crossing gender barriers.

Trouble begins early. The first of many mothers in the movie, Manuela - played with fierce conviction by the lovely Cecilia Roth - has an inappropriately close relationship with her teenage son Estaban. Their life together is complete, in its way, though fatherless. Estaban's death sets Manuela on a pilgrimage of sorts, from Madrid to Barcelona, to tell the boy's father what's happened. But this connection is only one of many, to people from her past, to a theater troupe, to another Estaban not yet born. Her fatalism, her sense of self-sacrifice, and her amazing endurance are uniquely maternal - one senses that Manuela would do whatever was required to discharge her obligations.

Manuela's time in Barcelona is an orgy or people, mothers of all descriptions. Almodovar mocks that most famous of all mothers, the Madonna, by casting Penelope Cruz as Hermana Rosa, a beautifully innocent, simple-minded nun dying of HIV-AIDS. Not exactly exemplary. Hermana's mom won't be getting many cards on Mother's Day either; she's too busy forging Cezannes to spend time with her daughter. Likewise, the theater troupe is not exactly overrun with familiar mom types. Marisa Peredes is amazing as Huma Rojo, the lesbian leading lady with a Bette Davis fixation. She's smitten with co-star Nina, a narcissistic nymphet junkie.

Fortunately, Manuela's old friend Agrado possesses many of the traditional maternal virtues; caring, compassion, and concern for the welfare of others. Problem is, Agrado is not a mother at all but a transgender male prostitute well on the way into womanhood. Oddly enough, this also describes Estaban's father, Lola. (Lola is clearly played by a man but the part of Agrado is inhabited by Antonia San Juan, a woman playing a man who is "playing at" being a woman - a dazzling performance.)

If all this sounds bizarre and confusing, it should. But Almodovar loves these characters and never uses them as stereotypes or punchlines. There's more to motherhood than bringing life into the world, and All About My Mother shows that what we think of as motherhood, that is, being the heart and soul of a family, comes in more forms than we are brave enough to imagine. You will not forget this movie. December 29, 2007

Beautifully weaved Masterpiece

Almodovar's "All About My Mother" is perhaps the most beautifully written and acted film I have ever seen. In typical Almodovar fashion, the film is full of symbolism, vibrant colors, inter-connected story lines, and an ending that brings the entire film full circle without being cliche.

After her son dies in a tragic accident in Madrid, Manuela embarks on a personal hegira to Barcelona, where she not only takes a group of misfits under her generous wing, but she finds herself along the way. Full of masterfully detailed relationships, honesty, and love, the film is genuinely moving. Not one to leave sorrow or mystery behind, Almodovar blends the mystery of the human condition with a concoction of humor and compassion brilliantly.

This is truly a pinnacle in a career full of cinematic highs. July 26, 2007

All About My Mother

A splendidly absorbing, character-driven drama with lots of twists and turns, Almodóvar's "Mother" is an homage to female actresses and anyone with a maternal instinct. With his trademark visual flair and empathy for fringe feminine types--hookers, transvestites, druggies, and distraught single women in particular--Almodóvar spins an engaging, melodramatic story with heavy allusions to "All About Eve" and "A Streetcar Named Desire." Roth, Paredes, Cruz, and San Juan give marvelously spirited performances, all of which helped the movie win an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Why not let Almodóvar "Mother" you? July 11, 2007

Hard to get one's head around this one

At times, this was an emotionally exhausting film, containing so much grief & loss that it was difficult to watch, and by extension, difficult to review. It wanders amazingly far afield from what at first appears to be a movie about a mother/son relationship, but Almodovar manages to keep the movie from completely losing its coherence.

This is probably one of those movies where the sometimes bizarre content can overwhelm a viewer. Repeated viewings no doubt would reveal some nuggets that were missed the first time through. One could certainly do worse than watching this a second or third time, that's for sure.

If nothing else, watch the movie for the riveting performance of Cecelia Roth as Manuela. Prior to seeing this, I was unfamiliar with her work, but now hope to seek out some of her other movies. February 27, 2007

Not Almodovar's Best

While the acting (especially that of Cecilia Roth and Penelope Cruz) is superb, I don't care much for this story at the point I should care most, the climax! As usual for his movies, the plot is highly improbable, and while that rarely bothers me, I'm growing tired of Almodovar's over-the-top characters -- the ridiculously eccentric gays, lesbians and transexuals, who he then wants to portray as the most admirable characters in the movie. (An effort to "normalize," "humanize" them, perhaps? Whatever. Go preach from the pulpit, I say.) What worked in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (clearly a screwball comedy), doesn't work here, where the tone is more somber, and the plot somewhat more believable.

Still, I'm looking forward to more from Almodovar. You never know where his stories are going until you've watched the whole movie. That said, I'm also starting to expect all the quirky weirdos, but I don't always look forward to encountering them. September 26, 2006

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