Parallel Mothers - 2 nominations

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role Penélope Cruz

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) Alberto Iglesias

Parallel Mothers is the story of two single mothers who give birth in the same hospital on the same day rooming together pre and post birth.  Janis is a successful photographer in her 40s whose former boyfriend is married, and Ana is a teenager in school and living at home.  Though they are seemingly opposites, they form a fast bond.  They go their separate ways but find each other again a few months later, when Ana reveals that her baby died of SIDS.  Janis asks Ana to come live with her and watch her baby while Janis goes back to work.  The movie is absolutely an Almodovar gem, but once again (small spoiler alert), when Janis and Ana engage in a sexual and emotional relationship, it bothered me.  (what's with all these pedo storylines this year???)

I don't want to share too much more about the film's plot because the spoilers will ruin it for you.  I sincerely enjoyed it, and being an Almodovar fan, I'm comfortable with how he uses sexuality in most of his films.  He is obsessed with mothers and he worked on this film for so long that there is actually a poster on the wall for Parallel Mothers in his 2009 film Broken Embraces.  But again, I have to push back on these inappropriate relationships in film - the story did not require it and frankly, no story requires it.  The film was tainted for me once they started sleeping together, though I remain an ardent fan of this incredible filmmaker.

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