XXXII ◄◄◄ From page XXIV
come to terms with the facades of the adults surrounding them, and even in their engagement with the poverty that they find on the way to the paradise that is ‘Heaven’s Mouth.’ Youth transitioning to adults, the city transitioning into the countryside, the roads giving way to the sea, the boys making love to their respective youthful girlfriends and then later on with the older Luisa; there are many important transitions to observe and analyse, and the character of Luisa functions as the catalyst for many of the decisions that bring these transitions into the light. Her role is one that anchors the story, as it is Luisa, herself going through a great change as she chooses to leave her husband, who sets everything into motion. Maribel Verdu is fiercely sensual as Luisa (fun fact: I once rounded a corner in Cartagena, Colombia, during a film festival there and almost crashed into the actress and her entourage) and her performance is one that is so good that hers is the character, despite sleeping with both boys and leaving her husband, that most of the audience will identify with. Her acting is achingly beautiful, the kind of acting that is at once restrained and pulsing with heated emotion, threatening to explode were it not for the tight control that Verdu exerts in her craft.
Luisa’s contrast with the boys comes across when we realise that, unlike them, she did not have much of an adolescence to enjoy. She was not offered the same opportunities to explore and to find herself in the way the Julio and Tenoch have managed to. Her role, at the end of the film, after she calms the storm brewing between the boys, when they all drink and dance together on the beach (in one of the most sensual scenes to ever appear in a movie), when all three of them make love together, seems to be one that was meant to urge Julio and Tenoch to embrace their youth and their lives, to explore and to live freely in a way she never did. However, in the end, this lesson is clearly lost on the teenagers, who, horrified by the fact that they slept together, ultimately refuse to confront the truth of who are by stamping out the friendship that Cuaron used throughout the film to light up the hearts and minds of the audience who watched Julio and Tenoch and their adventures in a way that was designed to remind us all of the follies and beauty and joys of youth. An extremely humorous film that edges the dark ever so slightly in the end, particularly when we learn of Luisa’s final transition and her final reminder to the boys to live freely and truthfully, “Y Tu Mama Tambien” emphasises the fleeting nature of time and the notion of enjoying life to the fullest.
Chronicle Pepperpot July 1, 2018