Parallel Mother is now playing in theaters. We had to share our Parallel Mother Quotes along with our movie review. Be sure to also watch the trailer below!
Parallel Mother Quotes
“Look at the lens.”- Janis (Penélope Cruz)
“Can you smile a bit?”- Janis
“What are the skulls for?”- Arturo (Isreal Elejalde)
“The grave is here.”- Janis
“The whole town would help you.”- Janis
“I’m improvising.”- Arturo
“Our work isn’t opening graves.”- Arturo
“Breathe through your nose.”- Janis
“So, we’re both single mothers.”- Janis
“Mine was an accident, too.”- Ana (Milena Smit)
“Does it hurt a lot?”- Elena (Rossy de Palma)
“It’s amazing!”- Elena
“Push hard.”- Theresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón)
“Hello, my darling.”- Janis to baby
“I kind of ambushed him but he liked it.”- Theresa
“I can always dream.”- Theresa
“It’s already here.”- Janis
“I don’t regret anything.”- Janis
“What a family scene.”- Janis
“Look at that beautiful girl.”- Janis
“I was the worst mother in the world.”- Theresa
“Who’s Janis Joplin?”- Ana
“But I’m Ana Manso.”- Ana
Parallel Mother Review
Image Credit: Sony Pictures
The prolific writer/director Pedro Almodóvar (by my reckoning this is his 40th movie!) is at it again with the new drama Parallel Mothers. The movie is about (you guessed it) two mothers that find each other in the maternity ward of a hospital in Madrid. While the mothers, 40- something Janis (Penélope Cruz- all doe-eyed and 80’s supermodel hair) and privileged teenager Ana (Milena Smit) wait to have their babies, they bond. The single mothers have their daughters on the same day and their infants both suffer a slight hiccup that sees them in a hospital observation for a brief time. As the babies get older, both mothers grow into motherhood while suffering setbacks. Ana has a harder time with motherhood and finds herself seeking help from Janis who is more of a mother to Ana than her real mother, Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón). The movie settles into itself at this point and almost forgets the other plotline that is started at the beginning of the movie.
When Janis looks to the anthropologist Arturo (Israel Elejalde) for help concerning a mass grave where her great grandfather was buried during the Spanish Civil War, she finds a boyfriend as well. Though they are apart in the middle of the movie, they come together at the end to exhume the grave of her relative as well as her best friend Elena’s (Rossy de Palma) relative. What a coincidence and how lucky for them! All looks rosy for the entire cast!
Almodóvar’s mind is on fire here. He combines motherhood, dictators, class warfare, Levis and Suzukis, beautifully furnished city apartments and country villas, and sexuality in a super blend of cinema. He throws a lot into this Spanish language film. The man is no stranger to Academy Award love. Will his Parallel Mothers get him any this year?