Madres Paralelas is Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film which brings together Penélope Cruz and Milena Smit in the cast. French critics are unanimous on this drama around motherhood.
[Mis à jour le 1er décembre 2021 à 9h19] Pedro Almodóvar once again offered Penélope Cruz a golden role in Madres Paralelas. The last film of the Spanish director was released in theaters on December 1, 2021. In this drama around motherhood (a theme dear to the Madrid filmmaker), Penelope cruz plays Janis, who meets Ana in a hospital room. Both are about to give birth and become single mothers. A close bond will be created between the two women who will follow each other for several years.
French criticism is globally conquered by the surprising Madres Paralelas. The press praised the performances of the actresses, and in particular of Penélope Cruz, who obtained for this role the prize for the best actress at the Venice Film Festival 2021: “Madres paralelas is a film embodied by its characters and, above all, by its actresses. Penélope Cruz, in particular, has never been so luminous and tormented at the same time “, underlines Les Inrockuptibles, when Le Figaro considers that” Penélope Cruz carries this melodrama from start to finish treated a little over the leg “. The staging and aesthetics are also praised by critics: “ The director’s camera, both uncompromising and modest, always knows how to magnify “actresses, notes La Voix du Nord, when Les Echos is seduced by this” passionate portrait of women of the 2020s “.
In this melodrama, Pedro Almodóvar allows himself a political reflection much more present than in his previous works, underline the critics: “This is his first political film on the ghosts of Francoism” describes TéléLoisirs. While many critics find the film flawed ( “a melodrama treated a little over the leg, with a good dose of starched dialogues, like Franco for dummies, and a feeling of déjà vu “for Le Figaro), admirers of Almodóvar’s work can be tempted by this new cinema proposal from the Iberian director without hesitation.
Synopsis – Over two years, the film will follow two women who have given birth the same day and which have parallel trajectories.
