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Parallel Mothers

Madres Paralelas

Pedro Almodóvar | 2021 | 123 MINS
Spain | Subtitles
Pedro Almodóvar’s boisterous, warm-bodied swapped-at-birth melodrama about two single women who meet in a maternity ward.

In Detail

Penelope Cruz stars as Janis, a 40-year-old photographer who is determined she will raise her daughter as a single mum, just as her mother and grandmother did before her. In the maternity ward she meets teenager Ana (Milena Smit), who is similarly intent on going it alone. The women become close; they are both in the same boat. Months later, a biological test will establish just how linked these two are.

Almodóvar tackles the plot’s twists and turns with his customary energy and abandon, rustling up a robust, celebration of female solidarity. Cruz is terrifically good value here in a ravishingly crafted piece of work that sees Almodóvar back in his comforting milieu.

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