The latest Almodovar isn’t a towering and personal achievement like his last film, “Pain and Glory,” but it encompasses everything we love about the legendary Spanish director with some added political subtleties. Tackling two women who give birth at the same time in the same room at a Madrid hospital, “Parallel Mothers” has single mothers Janis (Penelope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smith) paving through the hardships and pleasures of motherhood as the two form a close friendship, which, by lack of luck, develops into a complicated dilemma. Of course, to say more would ruin the surprises Almodovar has in store here, but try to brush up on your Spanish Civil War as the film has undertones of that shameful part of history. Almodovar tackles the ghosts and DNA of Spanish tragedy via the story of two mothers linked by unsuspected genetics. It doesn’t always work, some of its key plot twists, can be seen coming, and the parallel stories being told here don’t always find a unified coherence, but Penelope Cruz’s emotionally resonant performance deserves awards — it’s a full throttled depiction of a woman confronting a sheer maternal nightmare. Tonal issues aside, Almodovar throws a wealth of ideas for the audience to grasp here, they might never fully come together, but it’s an irresistible proposition to watch a high-caliber artist swing for the fences with this kind of ambition. The result is a messily fascinating statement. [B] Contribute Hire me
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