In the Chilean drama “A Fantastic Woman” (a nominee for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film), director/co-writer Sebastian Lelio finds unexpected beauty in every frame. Rating: 3½ stars out of 4.
Movie review |
Sometimes, the simplest of moments can be the most eloquent. In the Chilean drama “A Fantastic Woman” (a nominee for the Academy Award for best foreign-language film), we meet a woman named Marina (Daniela Vega) who early in the film experiences a terrible loss. In a scene in which Marina is driving, director/co-writer Sebastian Lelio does something wrenching and unexpected: The camera focuses not on Marina, but on the empty passenger seat, where a loved one sat not long ago. We feel the terrible absence; we sense that the air in the car is forever changed.
We don’t get to know that lost love, Orlando (Francisco Reyes), very well; he dies in the film’s first 20 minutes or so. But we do learn that he is a generation older than Marina, that he is kind and that he loves her passionately. This sets up a contrast for the rest of the film: Orlando was a safe haven for Marina in a world that often treats her, a transgender woman, cruelly. Doctors at the emergency room where she has brought Orlando fixate on her gender; police officers force her to submit to a humiliating examination; Orlando’s family, including his ex-wife, distrust her and try to keep her from the funeral. “When I look at you, I don’t know what I’m seeing,” says the ex-wife, her words thrusting like a knife into already wounded flesh.
Lelio, who previously directed “Gloria,” finds unexpected beauty in every frame: a yellow-lit night; a series of mirrors in which Marina glimpses herself; a sudden windstorm on a Santiago sidewalk, leaving Marina caught in a whirl of leaves and pressure. And Vega gives her character a practiced, steely quietness: Marina is accustomed to keeping her pain inside, presenting a cool picture to the world. “A Fantastic Woman” becomes a delicate, moving study of grief, of quiet triumph over adversity, of adjusting to life’s empty spaces — and learning to fill them with love.
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★★★½ “A Fantastic Woman,” with Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Kuppenheim, Nicolas Saavedra. Directed by Sebastian Lelio, from a screenplay by Lelio and Gonzolo Maza. 104 minutes. Rated R for language, sexual content, nudity and a disturbing assault. In Spanish, with English subtitles. SIFF Cinema Egyptian.