Roma (Alfanso Cuaron, 2018): USA

Reviewed by Gloria Kaye.  Viewed at the 2019 Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Nominated for 10 Academy Awards, Roma is one of the most outstanding films of this decade.  Roma’s leading lady, Yalitza Aparigio, was a first time film actor.  Her performance was flawless as a servant named Cleo to a family in Mexico City.  She displayed her acting ability in many scenes.  She was a caretaker to the children, lover to her loser martial artist with whom she became pregnant, and confidant to Sofia who was getting a divorce from her husband. The scene in which she gives birth to a stillborn child is filled with drama and emotion.  This was a scene that could have been over acted, but her performance was flawless.

Watching Cleo, who is of indigenous decent, was like watching the perfection of a precious creation in nature.  Nothing could be improved upon.  She was so skillfully directed by Alfonso Cuaron, who captured every facial expression and nuance of her body movements.  As she moved through the house picking up after the family, she did so with grace and economical movements.  I marveled at how she could navigate a steep staircase while carrying an enormous bundle of dirty clothes.

The themes were basically the boundary and plight of a servant, and the plight of the soon to be divorced wife and mother.  Early on in the film, we see the husband going on a business trip, when in fact he had made plans to leave the family.  The unfolding of the struggle the two women share is central to the plot and represents the universal struggle experienced by many women.  In both cases, Cleo and Sophia work through their issues and move onto experience a personal freedom.

Although this was a serious film, the sequence in which the wife tries to navigate an uncommonly large car into a small garage like space was quite funny.  Slightly drunk, she bashes into the walls of the garage.  When she manages to finally park the car, she gets out and says to Cleo that we, as women, are always alone and on our own.  She decides to take the boat of a car on its final journey and the entire family goes to the beach.  The children are swept into an undercurrent and call for help.  Although Cleo cannot swim, she bravely entered into the ocean and saved the children.

The street scenes of Mexico City were filmed in such a way that the viewer felt present in the bustle and chaos of the street.  Although the story was somewhat weak and disjointed, the acting made up for any flaw in the storyline.