Parallel Mothers (Madres paralelas) (2021)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar. Cast: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde. 123 min. Drama.

• The usual Almodóvar themes of mistaken/switched identities (or occasionally genders), with his usual colorful costumes and backgrounds (prominently red and orange), and his usual ultra-photogenic muse Penelope Cruz in the starring role - but this time with a more political slant.
• The storyline is predictable, even by the movie's title: two mothers deliver their babies at the same time, and if you've seen some Almodóvar, you know the babies will get switched by mistake, and the drama about the mothers grappling with the aftermaths. But there's an underlying subplot, with Cruz looking to exhume from a mass grave the bodies of her ancestors who were murdered during the Franco regime. And thereby the director is asking us a question: should we go back to correct intentional or unintentional mistakes of the past … or let go and live with what we have?  
• Since I was accustomed to the style, I was planning on giving this a 6 out of 10. Then suddenly, the very beautiful and surreal last shot, involving "people we know" lying in a mass grave, elevated it to a 7.

MoGo's rating: 7/10

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