Todo Sobre mi Madre seemly starts off as a portrait of devoted mother Manuela and her ambitious son, Esteban. They have an unusually close relationship and share everything with each other. The happiness abruptly turns into heart-breaking melodrama when Esteban dies in a car-accident while trying to obtain an autograph from his favorite stage-performer. Emotionally devastated, Manuela returns to Barcelona, the city she fled from 17 years ago when she was pregnant with her son. Slowly and one step at the time, our heroine regains her will to live again and she's doing this by helping others. She watches over the confused Rosa during her pregnancy, becomes the personal assistant of the depressed actress Huma (and even fills in for the part of Stella in the 'Streetcar Named Desire'-play) and rejoins her old transvestite friend Agrado. This film is about human beings and their thoughts, emotions and feelings. So don't expect an adrenalin-filled action movie that'll blow you out of your seat. More specifically, Almódovar puts the slightly more eccentric (prostitutes, transvestites and lesbians) members of society in the spotlights and succeeds in informing the masses that these are ordinary people, capable of hurting
loving
and feeling. Through the clever and sophisticated use of absolute film classics like "All about Eve" and - of course - "Streetcar", this film reflects the depth and maturity of the substance. Todo Sobre Mi Madre contains several colorful characters worth analyzing, but it's Manuela's main storyline that impresses the most. Not in the least thanks to the outstanding performance by Celicia Roth! The tears she cries are real and the agony she feels contaminates you, the viewer. Roth is a very charismatic actress who amazingly represents every mother in this world. This is the best recent Spanish film I've seen recently (aside from "Tésis", which is a completely different genre) and warmly recommended to everyone interested in character-driven cinema. You better watch it repeatedly to make sure you don't miss any aspect of the player's personalities.
This review is dedicated to my Iberian Queen, Nisa. I probably never would have seen this film if it weren't for her
This review is dedicated to my Iberian Queen, Nisa. I probably never would have seen this film if it weren't for her