Penelope Cruz shows that she's more than just a stunning beauty in the new Spanish-language film, "Ma Ma." But even in her going-for-broke-portrayal of a woman whose world begins to crash in around her when she finds out she has breast cancer, Cruz can't entirely save the maudlin "Ma Ma."
The film gets too caught up in hoping to produce tears and its sanctimonious ways. But all of this is still not a reason to entirely stay away from the arthouse cinema. Cruz gives it all in her performance and there is a bit of worthiness in director/writer Spanish auteur, Julio Medem's vision.
Magda, a schoolteacher, has just lost her job and has been left by her cheating, professor husband, Julian (Asier Etxeandia). Magda's world revolves around her young son, Dani (Teo Planell), who finds his role models in professional soccer players since his father is not much of a presence in his life. She had noticed a lump in her breast (the preaching of the importance of self examination echoes like a public service announcement), but hadn't done much about it. She finally finds the time to go to see her OB-GYN, Raul (Alex Brendemuhl).
The news isn't good. She should have come to see him earlier, he lectures. She'll need a mastectomy and chemo and there still is a chance she won't make it. She rushes off to a soccer game to see Dani play. A talent scout, Arturo (Luis Tosar), is in the stands scouting for the Real Madrid league for youngsters who have "potential" to eventually go pro. The two bond just as Arturo gets an emergency phone call that his wife and daughter have been in a bad car accident. She helps him to the hospital after he faints and continues to make vigils to the hospital to check on Arturo days upon days as his wife lay in a coma.
Meanwhile, Magda's losing her hair and weight as she undergoes intensive chemotherapy. And, she's going it alone.
How Cruz's Magda is framed so beautifully can be credited to the actress's involvement in the film. She does create a depth of character, finding nuances in places where someone else might buy into the predictable script. Medem has said that Cruz didn't want to rehearse certain scenes but have them play out on film. She served, too, as coproducer.
Watch for the opening title, which proclaims that Cruz isn't just the star, but she's entirely wrapped up in it: “A Film By Penelope Cruz and Julio Medem.” There are bits and pieces in places that only serve as blobs of confusion and interrupt the flow of the film. Medem tries to create some existential elements to make this film arthouse worthy: There's the recurring vision that Madga has of a young Serbian girl whose hair is as white as the snow that trickles down around her; images of a beating heart and a disturbing image of Madga's nipple preserved on ice. Yet there are flashes of brilliance in the movie.
Perhaps this is where the Cruz-Medem partnership shows through. In one joyous scene in the otherwise sulky film, Cruz's Magda, lonely and sick, stands on her balcony while those around her cheer on Spain's soccer team. She joins in on the revelry trying to form a connection with the strangers.
Yet Medem's screenplay offers up too many hovering plots in "Ma Ma" to actually care about Madga – including a slight wink that maybe her OBGYN is taking an interest in her. In fact, she seems like the only patient he has, or at least that Julian cares enough about. He's not only a surgeon, but a singer and serenades her at a beach side bar. The finale of the film should be a tearjerker, yet it's so entirely cloying that it's difficult to take it seriously.
Cruz makes you want to love her "Ma Ma," but rather than an anthem of hope, the film has too many scars to promote a healing effect.
"Ma Ma" is playing in South Florida at AMC Aventura, Cinema Paradiso, Fort Lauderdale, and The Classic Gateway Theater, Fort Lauderdale.
