Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron - Nine out of 10

Roma, written and directed by Alfonso Cuaron

Nine out of 10

The poster of this extraordinary film has one of the most emotional, tense, dramatic scenes from the script and some quotes from reputable, established media organizations:

“The most exquisite and artistic film of the year” The BBC

The best picture of the year” – TIME, Rolling Stone, Variety, Vanity Fair

Furthermore, the Metascore – the average rating of the critics – is an astonishing 96 out of 100, a spectacular achievement that may have not been seen before, while the audiences have sent the feature to the list of Top Rated Movies, most popular of all time.

For the Golden Globes, Roma is nominated for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language, Best Director and Best Screenplay.

The black and white film tells the story of a family and their house help, living in a neighborhood of Mexico City in 1970 and 1971, where tragedy strikes, an infant dies, a husband abandons his children and wife, while some violent men attack and kill civilians on the street and in shops.

Cleo seems to be the heroine of the motion picture, a modest, innocent – even if she is pregnant at one point – nice, kind, brave young maid that would run into the waves of the ocean when the children she has in her care and she evidently loves are in danger, although she cannot swim.

The house belongs to Antonio and his spouse, Sofia, and they have four children, two servants, and a dog and live a life almost without adversity, until the doctor travels to Quebec.

Up to that moment, he used to have a regular schedule, driving the car in the courtyard where their dog spends all his time, and defecates around, making the master of the house complain.

Antonio does not return from Canada.

His wife tries to keep the news away from the children, but the elder son is listening at the door, while his mother discusses the subject.

When Sofia comes out and sees the boy listening at the door, she first slaps him and then regrets it and asks forgiveness.

Anyway she shouts at Cleo, who has seen the child and did not know how to take him away, causing her employer to say in her anger that she should have prevented this and then to shout that she should be doing work in the house.

Cleo has a relationship with Fermin, a personage with an outré, bizarre behavior in the first place.

While they are in the same room, the naked man starts making martial arts movements.

He says that these exercises and the philosophy attached have saved him, for he had been drinking, losing his way and he would have died without his change in his existence.

Nonetheless, when he finds that his lover is pregnant, during a film at the cinema, he pretends he needs to use the rest room and disappears.

When Cleo traces him, he is joining training with more than one hundred other men, led by a man who is able to keep his foot in balance with closed eyes – an impressive feat that is used to measure biological age by scientists – and she approaches the father of the unborn baby, there is a scene.

The stupid, violent Fermin threatens his former partner, makes some martial arts moves and the runs away!

Later on, when the poor mother is in a shop with Seniora Teresa, a group of violent thugs enters the premises and they shoot dead a protestor, who has tried to find refuge inside, running from the demonstration taking place on the streets, where many others have been murdered.

Fermin is part of the band of killers…so much for the effect of martial arts on the new breath of life.

In order to allow Doctor Antonio to get “his things” from the house, the family travels to the coast, where they luckily take Cleo with them.

When Seniora Sofia walks to the house to prepare for the return journey the next day, the three elder children enter the ocean and disregard the rule to stay near the shore or they are simply carried by the waves, forcing Cleo to walk into the ocean and attempt to save the children who seem about to die for quite a few moments.

This is when the simple woman bursts into tears and confesses that she had not wanted her dead infant to be born.

The new populist Mexican president, AMLO, has organized an evening around the projection of what is indeed, one of the best motion pictures of the year.