Movie Review: Ema

Ema **** / *****

Directed by: Pablo Larraín.

Written by: Guillermo Calderón and Alejandro Moreno.

Starring: Mariana Di Girolamo (Ema), Gael García Bernal (Gastón), Santiago Cabrera (Aníbal), Paola Giannini (Raquel), Cristián Suárez (Polo), Giannina Fruttero (Sonia), Josefina Fiebelkorn (Perla), Mariana Loyola (Sara), Catalina Saavedra (Marcela), Paula Luchsinger (María), Paula Hofmann (Laura), Antonia Giesen (Renata), Susana Hidalgo (Paulina), Eduardo Paxeco (Carlos), Natalia Bakulic (Lisa).

 

Ema (Mariana Di Girolamo) doesn’t care if you like her or not – which is good, because I have a feeling that many people who watch the film will end up hating her. Before the movie even begins, she does something horrible, and yet doesn’t seem to feel too much guilt over it, and in fact does things in the movie that could very well make things worse for all involved. But she is also undeniably herself – and has a pull to her, that makes everyone around her drawn to her.

 

As directed by Pablo Larrain, Ema is a visually stunning film, less concerned with plot – admittedly, the film is confusing for at least its first half – then it is being a character study of Ema herself, who the movie doesn’t judge, but surely you will. She has a slicked back mop of blonde hair, is a reggaeton dancer, whose rountines with her all female trope purposely ooze with sex, perhaps even more than the films sex scenes do. She is married to Gastón (Gael Garcia Bernal) – although they have one of those relationships where you aren’t sure if they love or hate each other – because it’s probably both. You can never really tell if they are together or apart – and it doesn’t really matter which, because both of them will fuck anyone else they want to, should the opportunity arise.

 

The plot revolves around the couples former adopted son, Polo (Cristián Suárez), a troubled young boy if ever there was one. He has put a cat in the freezer, where it froze to death, and set his aunt ablaze – that fire apparently serving as an inspiration for Ema, who uses blowtorches throughout the movie. Ema and Gaston have returned Polo – who has been placed somewhere else – but Ema has not forgotten him, and still considers herself his mother. The social worker is blunt with Ema – she was a horrible mother, the entire system is setup to ensure people like her do not adopt children, and whoever the hell has adopted Polo now are surely better for him than Ema and Gaston were. Not having that, Ema sets about ensuring that she will be a part of Polo’s life – hell, a part of his family, no matter what.

 

Larrain’s film veers all over the place visually. In many of the dances sequences, you may well recall Gaspar Noe’s Climax from last year – as the dancer’s writhe and contort themselves in extended sequences that remind you of music videos – although music videos are almost never this good. At the heart is this relationship between Ema and Gaston – who seem to take pleasure in hurting each other, as if they are enacting their own sort of twisted version of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. When they’re together, Ema does little but insult and belittle Gaston. When he sleeps with someone else, Ema drags her out by her hair. The two performances by Di Girolamo and Garcia Bernal are brilliant – playing selfish, self-involved people, but in different registers – she is all fire and emotion, he acts like a petulant child.

 

I am sure that for many, Ema will be a trial to sit through – all that visual opulence, that can go on seemingly endlessly, the arguments designed to hurt that go on for just as long, and Ema’s plan, which is brilliant at achieving her goals, but may in fact be monstrous, etc. For me though, the whole package was thrilling. The movie is brilliantly made, ambiguous, and has two characters that you are likely to forget. Larrain is a director I run hot and cold on – I loved his last film, Jackie, featuring a brilliant performance by Natalie Portman, which made her personal aftermath of the Kennedy Assassination into a horror film – but didn’t like The Club or No nearly as much as others did. Here though, he is basically attempting a high wire act – and pulls it off.