Roma has a powerful story that’s not as black and white as it’s displayed on screen. I admit it was hard for me to actually sit down and watch this movie, but with all the praise it was getting by the academy I had to check it out.
I think that I was expecting a little bit more going into Roma and that it would really gut punch you, which it did at times but not as much as I thought it would.
The story does make you feel a lot of emotions but mostly we are just following along the journey of a middle class family in Mexico City trying to find their way as struggles are thrown at them.
It’s a powerful and charming film that not only focuses on the family but also highlights the social and political problems going on in Mexico at the time.
This isn’t thrown at you in context and I found myself looking things up after the movie to clarify the meaning of it in the film.
That’s a major problem to me because I believe that a film should stand on its own without the audience having to look things up for clarification.
Director Alfonso Cuarón clearly has a massive connection to the film because it’s a story about his childhood growing up in Mexico City.
This can help and hinder Roma at times because you can tell the care and the time that went into creating this film, but it also means that he uses broad strokes to show certain things when the audience needs more context to understand whats going on.
The performances are stunning, especially Yalitza Aparicio who plays Cleo the main character and the families housekeeper. Yalitza was a kindergarten teacher in mexico with no previous acting experience.
She is stunning and so charming throughout the film and does a great job of portraying her struggle not only trying to find herself, but trying to help a broken family.
Roma not only shows a harrowing story of a family and their housekeeper, but also is a great commentary on social issues in Mexico during that time.
It depicts class structures and how if you’re born into a certain class most often than not you stay there. They also depict feminism and how women are often left to pick up the pieces of a broken family and are seen no more than an elevated housekeeper.
Cleo and the mother played by Marina de Tavira come together and show that they don’t have to be perfect and can care for the family perfectly fine together.
The depiction of these social issues is great but again Cuarón hinders himself by using broad strokes so some audience members may find themselves googling things after the movie to provide more context into that time in Mexico.
The biggest fault I found with the movie was it’s black and white filming. I understand the motive behind it and while there’s beautiful cinematography I found it as a crutch.
The culture of Mexico can be well defined by the colors and different textures that are all around you. In my opinion if it was filmed it color it could have made it even more beautiful than it already is and provided more depth to the story.
Although Roma packs the punches with its story and acting there are flaws in the film that hinder it instead of help it as Cuarón intended. I will say that Roma is worth your time and everyone should see it because it is such a powerful story.
I give Roma a C+
