SITE TOOLS
|
|
|
Y
Tu Mamá También,
2001, 105 minutes, Not Rated
By Carla Robinson
There
is a moment in the exuberant Mexican film Y Tu Mamá, También (And
Your Mother, Too) that's so spontaneous and perfect that it must have
been improvised. Such a small moment, it should really be called a
blip, yet it wholly embodies the color, spirit, and vibrancy of this
cinematic masterpiece.
|
|
|
The moment is comprised of an old woman
in a blue dress, standing in the back of a dingy little restaurant,
dancing with as much abandon as her ancient bones can muster. The look
on her face betrays a love of life, an embrace of every second.
Through her appearance, she seems to be saying from the background:
Life is all irony, the best we can do is get caught in its rhythm
while we can.
|
|
To Buy
Click Here
|
|
|
In a film that wastes nothing (not even
its background, which depicts a modern day Mexico that's as full of
surprises and contradictions as are the main characters), there is no
better character to impart this message. A woman about as old as we
can hope to get. A seasoned messenger in a film for people who have
grown up, not just older. The screenplay, directed by Alfonso Cuarón
(his American Films include 1995's A Little Princess and 1998's Great
Expectations) and written by his brother, Carlos, is a sexually
explicit comedy that's stunning in the way that it entrusts us with
mature subject matter while not confusing intelligence with pretense. MORE>>
|
|
|
© 2002 IFC Films
Maribel Verdú
(Luisa), Gael García Bernal (Julio) and Diego Luna (Tenoch) in Y Tu
Mama Tambien
|
|
|
The film's journey commences when
teenage best friends Julio (the beautiful Gael García Bernal, most
notably seen infusing Amores Perros with his special brand of jittery
sex appeal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna, Bernal's real life best friend),
free for the summer and determined to make the most of their
girlfriends' being away, manage to convince an older, twenty-something
woman, Luisa (Maribel Verdú), that they're going on a trip to a
mystical (and made-up) beach and that she should come with them. Luisa
agrees for reasons of her own, but horndogs that they are, the boys
figure maybe they'll be able to cop a few feels, so they don't
particularly care what motivates her.
On the road, Julio and Tenoch show Luisa what we've
already seen - they think they've reached manhood, but they're very
far from it. Luisa tries to teach them the fine art of becoming men,
but finds she has her work cut out for her. When she tells them it's
important to establish a friendship with a certain intimate part of a
woman's body, one of them seriously asks, "How can I make friends
with something that is always hiding from me?"
By the end of their trip, Luisa has indeed been
many things to the boys - and their mother, too. Through their
relationship with her, they learn astonishing truths about how life
can turn on a dime and about their own capacity to turn with it.
Whether Julio and Tenoch will use what they've learned to fully
embrace the dance of life, we'll never know.
M
July 2002
|
|
|
|
|
RLP Ventures, LLC and/or its
suppliers. All rights reserved.