A Fantastic Woman
Director: Sebastián Lelio
Talent: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes
Released: March 2nd
The director Sebastián Lelio is an old romantic at heart. Between 2014’s masterful Gloria, about a middle-aged divorcee exploring a new lease of life, and A Fantastic Woman, Lelio has found his own niche curating the type of lush romantic outsider film that Hollywood doesn’t really do, and infusing the two films with incredibly driven female leads. Gloria belonged to Pauline García and A Fantastic Woman is most definitely all about Daniela Vega.
Vega’s Marina and Orlando (Reyes) are two inseparable souls, planning for a long future together. Orlando, 20 years her senior, is the owner of a printing company and Marina is an aspiring singer. After a night out to celebrate her birthday, Orlando suffers an aneurysm. After falling down a flight of stairs, Marina rushes him to the hospital, but it’s too late.
The wonderful dreamy mood that kicks off the film is very quickly replaced by the cold blunt cruelty of the world after Orlando’s death. Vega’s transgender Marina is immediately treated with suspicion as prejudices quickly surface, beginning at the hospital.
Due to the bruises on Orlando’s body, the involvement of the police pushes the situation into a more serious arena and with her shield, her protector, gone, the world begins to gnaw away at Marina, a figure that begins to look increasingly fragile and isolated. His bitter family close ranks, echoing the fears of the police, as they try to reclaim everything of Orlando’s, including his dog which he shared with Marina.
The latter half of the film focuses more on Marina asserting herself and standing up to Orlando’s family, and with it the tone shifts. The sting is taken out of the cruelty by scenes of magical realism, creating a somewhat fairy-tale tone that owes a huge debt to Pablo Almodovar. Beyond this act of theft, the tinkering music and humour works in Lelio’s favour by keeping a relatively unsurprising storyline moving with a pace that may have otherwise slunk into formulaic tedium.
Words: Shane O’Reilly
