Platicsco
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
gradyharp
'Never was a shade of any plant dearer and more lovely, or more sweet' - the English translation of Handel's aria form his opera 'Serse' - Ombra mai fu di vegetabile, cara ed amabile, soave più plays a significant role in this Oscar and Golden Globe winning foreign film from Chile: it is heard throughout and closes the film with the main character Marina singing it to the audience. The music is exquisite as sung by Daniela Vega, a gifted mezzo-soprano and actress, who in life is indeed a Chilean transgender female.The theme of the film - the pain and ridicule transgender people face by society - is daring and well handled. Marina (Daniela Vega) is a young waitress and aspiring singer whose lover is Orlando (Francisco Reyes), 20 years her senior, who owns a printing company. They are in love and planning for the future. After celebrating Marina's birthday one evening, Orlando falls gravely ill and as Marina prepares to take him to the hospital Orlando falls down the stairs. Marina rushes him to the emergency room, but he passes away just after arriving at the hospital. Instead of being able to mourn her lover, suddenly Marina is treated with suspicion. The doctors and Orlando's family don't trust her. A woman detective investigates Marina to see if she was involved in his death because of the bruises and bleeding resulting from the fall down the stairs. Orlando's ex-wife forbids her from attending the funeral. Orlando's son threatens to throw Marina out of the flat she shared with Orlando. Marina is a trans woman and for most of Orlando s family, her sexual identity is an aberration, a perversion. So Marina struggles for the right to be herself. She battles the very same forces that she has spent a lifetime fighting just to become the woman she is now - complex, strong, forthright and fantastic. A strong cast, fine direction (Sebastián Lelio who wrote the screenplay with Gonzalo Maza), exceptional musical scoring (Nani García and Matthew Herbert) and cinematography (Benjamín Echazarreta) allow the impact of Daniela Vega's superlative performance to glow. The film is a bit slow moving, but that allows time for the interplay of Marina's strength and the family's prejudice to gain focus. A solid film. Grady Harp, July 18
proud_luddite
Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega) is a transgender woman and aspiring singer in her twenties and living in Santiago, Chile. After the death of her lover, a man in his fifties with an ex-wife and an adult son, Marina is left alone in dealing with her grief and the aftermath of the death.In addition to the burden of grief, Marina must also deal with humiliating and prejudicial situations around her transgender status. She subtly shows an attitude of "I hate having to go through this again but I can." Interestingly, her transgender status is used to her advantage in a later scene in the film.Vega is in nearly every scene of the film and must carry it on her shoulders. She does the job superbly. She ably conveys awkwardness and vulnerability as her character attempts to maintain what is rightfully hers while being aware that many battles may not be won.Much of the film follows Marina as she journeys through the city's urban atmosphere to numb her pain. The last quarter of the film takes a different twist that is less interesting than what precedes it. But "A Fantastic Woman" is a good film overall mainly due to the subtle skills of its lead performer.
jdesando
If you feel uncomfortable or just out of it with the transgender topic, make sure to see the remarkable 2018 Oscar winner for best foreign language film, A Fantastic Woman, to be au currant and edified about a love story than transcends transgender. If you've come to expect a measured study of character and social norms from foreign films, then see this Chilean Oscar winner.Marina (Daniela Vega) is a waitress and moonlighting singer in love with an older man, Orlando (Francisco Reyes), who dies suddenly. While everyone knows or immediately guesses that she used to be a he, the rejection she experiences, from police who want to treat her like a criminal to his family, who can't understand his eccentric love ("I don't know what you are," says Bruno, played by Nicolás Saavedra), we become quickly aware about the unique and authentic love that will be tested long after Orlando's death.You may feel comfortable sensing the presence of Hitchcock and his Vertigo (writer director Sebastian Lelio must respect that director, and Pedro Almodovar, whose love of women in his films is legendary). Whatever, A Fantastic Woman has the trappings of world cinema that explores identity and society in unusual ways.Vega is a transgender and singer in real life whose performance is among the best of 2017. She is responsible for your feeling comfortable about transgender and for seeing this as a strong statement about people who are different in society, people who violate the marriage vows for love, and the need for understanding and sympathy for those about whom we know so little. Although Marina's treatment by Orlando's family occupies the central conflict, the soundtrack with multiple classical pieces elevates the crassness to operatic stature; the aria from Giacomelli's Sposa son speaks clearly of the abused wife in possibly the most blatant statement of support for Marina. Otherwise, the film lets you draw your own conclusion.A Fantastic Woman lets you gently into transgender challenges without ever preaching to you. It is about love, fantastic or otherwise, at home in a great film.
Ruben Mooijman
I had expected 'The Square' to win the foreign language Oscar, and I had hoped 'On Body and Soul' would take home the award. I was wrong. Instead of the urgency of the former or the poetry of the latter, the jury chose the delicacy of 'Una Mujer Fantástica'. Probably, the choice has been as much inspired by the subject of the film as by the cinematographic quality of it. 'Una Mujer Fantástica' is a plea for mutual understanding, tolerance and kindness. And at the same time a condemnation of bigotry, prejudice and brutality. It can't be seen without having to think about the wave of intolerance against all kinds of minorities currently sweeping western societies. The fantastic woman who has given the film its title, is Marina Vidal, a woman in her twenties who is dating a businessman about twice her age. In spite of the age difference, they seem to be happy with each other. But it's not so much the age difference that is remarkable. Marina is a woman who has been a man before. In the first part of the film, this is not an issue at all. It's only after her lover suddenly dies, that Marina's gender becomes something peculiar. The medical staff, the police and, above all, her lover's relatives treat her with utmost distrust and suspicion. They won't even let her grieve, or attend the funeral. The film shows how Marina suffers from the way she is treated, and how she refuses to give in. She remains her proud self, and in the end gets what she wants: a decent goodbye to her deceased lover. The film doesn't fall into the trap of making the whole thing too sentimental. The director registers the events, with a certain amount of compassion, but without making a tearjerker of it. This is not a groundbreaking movie. But 'Una Mujer Fantástica' is without any doubt a well-written, well-directed and well-acted drama, with an underlying message that's hard not to agree with.
