#Director Pedro Almodóvar Gets Both Familiar And Evolutionary [Venice 2021]

The story of “Parallel Mothers” might seem like an odd vessel for such a profound deliberation about the lingering aftereffects of a bloody, divisive conflict. The premise of the film, on its face, is the stuff of schlocky genre flicks. But doubting Almodóvar’s sensibilities has made few people rich, and he finds a way to subvert the easy tropes of “switched at birth” narratives by using the concept as a way to explore the nature of motherhood.

The two titular maternal figures meet in a Spanish delivery ward. Penélope Cruz’s Janis, even though she looks impossibly flawless while literally giving birth, is old enough to be considered a geriatric mother by medical standards. She’s determined to fulfill her aspirations to become a mother even though she lacks a stable life partner; a family history of single mothers empowers her to believe she can manage without a father in the picture.

Milena Smit’s Ana is also destined for single motherhood but, as a much younger woman, feels far less empowered in the quest. Nonetheless, the two strike up an ebbing and flowing friendship rooted in shared motherhood but also in spite of some marked differences in their family styles. Though the film’s title is “Parallel Mothers,” the relationship between Janis and Ana is perhaps better described as freely intertwined. Similarities bind them, but it’s the unexpected friction from their collisions that give the film such a sentimental and sensual spark.

Almodóvar does take a leisurely amount of time to arrive at this central narrative element, though. The film starts out preoccupied with Janis’ search for a lost family member believed to lay in a hidden grave, a search for answers she embarks on with Israel Elejalde’s Arturo, the eventual father of her child. Then the storyline all but disappears for most of the film, only to resurface and reveal Almodóvar’s central thematic concern: family reunification.