Comparisons were inevitable between this year's Best Foreign Film Oscar-winner "All About My Mother" and the similarly acclaimed drama "Solas." After all, the two films do come from the same country — Spain. And both celebrate motherhood in all its glory.
But the comparisons end there. For one thing, the filmmaking approaches couldn't be more different. While director Pedro Almodovar's award-winner is full of his trademark loopy characterizations and other, off-kilter sensibilities, the latter film is much more understated and subtle.
"Solas" is also so heartfelt and moving, that it's hard to believe it comes from a first-time filmmaker (writer/director Benito Zambrano) and that its cast is made up largely of acting newcomers and other nonprofessional performers — including Ana Fernandez, who stars as Maria, a thirtysomething cleaning woman.
Maria is a deeply unhappy woman, with little more than a drinking problem to show for all her hard work.
Things appear to go from bad to worse when Maria gets a new and seemingly unwelcome roommate — her mother, Rosa (Maria Galina), who's come to the city and needs a place to stay while her husband is hospitalized.
Maria has long since stopped talking to her father and has even less to say to her mother, who has silently taken her husband's abuse (verbally and, evidently, physically) for several years. But that doesn't stop Rosa from trying to improve the mother-daughter relationship, by smothering her with kindness. She also tries the same approach with Maria's downstairs neighbor (Carlos Alvarez-Novoa), an elderly man who's barely able to take care of himself, much less his faithful canine companion.
There's something Maria is holding back from her mother, though. She's pregnant by her nearly worthless truck-driver boyfriend (Juan Fernandez), and to compound the problem, the cad has told her that he doesn't want to support a wife and child.
With such a setup, it would have been very easy for this material to turn overwhelmingly dark and depressing, or for the situations to be resolved in a typically maudlin Hollywood fashion. But Zambrano resists that temptation.
He also eschews such filmmaking cliches as an intrusive musical score or the use of flashy camerawork. As a result, the movie almost feels more like a documentary than a filmed drama.
Adding to the authenticity are the terrific, but not showy, performances by the two female leads.
Obviously, the material could lead a less-disciplined actress to histrionics, but as Maria, Fernandez is very controlled, and her character is all the more compelling for it. And Galina matches her with a warm, gentle performance that's at least as appealing.
"Solas" is not rated but would probably receive an R for occasional strong profanity and some crude sex talk, brief sexual contact and fleeting partial male nudity. Running time: 98 minutes.
E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com