Parallel Mothers              4 stars

Filmmaker Pedro Almodovar returns to the big screen with Parallel Mothers, a very feminine movie with a feminine cast, almost three years since Pain and Glory. He once again casts Penelope Cruz in the lead role, this time as Janis, a single woman who finds herself pregnant and sharing a hospital room with a 17 year old girl, Ana (Milena Smit) who is also about to give birth without any partner present. The movie is about close bonds that form between people in spite of some very messy circumstances. It really has two distinct aspects. Besides the feminine relationships that Almodovar is so known for (also Julieta and Broken Embraces starring Cruz), the movie has a political aspect being set in Spain, a country that experienced a civil war in the 1930’s. Janis persuades Arturo, a forensic anthropologist to uncover a suspected grave where the fascists of that period are believed to have murdered and buried her great grandfather and several other men from the area. In so doing we hear the stories of how this terrible event has affected the lives of the descendants so many decades after the events. Janis is a single mother, whose mother and grandmother were all single mothers and still feels ties to family that she was too young to meet. There are several interesting twists in the story about these women that I can’t go into without revealing the plot, but I will say it is about a secret that was kept for too long and the effect that has on others. Look for Parallel Mothers to earn some significant award nominations including for Cruz.