CLEVELAND, Ohio — “Julieta” marks Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar’s 20th feature film. Too bad it’s such a stinker.
Almodovar is famous for his smart and sometimes outrageous takes on contemporary women. “Julieta” is a tedious melodrama taken from three short stories by the writer Alice Munro.
The Julieta of the film, played by Emma Suarez, is a middle-aged Spanish woman living in Madrid whose whole world has been knocked off its axis by the mysterious estrangement from her daughter, Antia, some dozen years before.
As the movie begins, the old wound caused by the loss of a relationship with her daughter is reopened when she runs into her daughter’s childhood friend on the street. The friend informs Julieta that she has seen Antia in Switzerland and that she now has three children.
This news causes Julieta to abandon a move with her boyfriend to Portugal. She rents an apartment in the building where she used to live with her daughter and begins writing a journal, which sends the audience into an extended flashback that traces her daughter’s story from before her birth and how she disappeared from her mom’s life.
It’s a long, strange trip — and not a very exciting one.
Young, single Julieta of the flashback, played by Adriana Ugarte, meets a young, handsome (but married; his wife is in a coma) fisherman named Xoan on a train. The two hit it off, and before they reach their destination, Julieta is pregnant. Some months later, when Julieta comes to visit Xoan (Daniel Grao) and tell him the good news, he has some for her as well. His sick wife has just died.
Julieta and Xoan live happily together raising their daughter. Julieta takes the baby Antia to visit her own ailing mother. While she’s gone, Xoan gets busy with an old girlfriend, which does not go unnoticed by the nosy and grumpy maid.
Years later, while Antia is off at summer camp, Julieta gets fed up and fires the maid. To get back at her boss, the maid spills the beans about Xoan’s dalliance. This sets off an argument between Julieta and Xoan. He goes out on his fishing boat in rough waters and dies.
People drop like flies all over the place in this movie. It’s the only thing that moves the plot along.
Following the death of her father, Antia heads off to a three-month spiritual retreat. When Julieta comes to retrieve her daughter at the end of the retreat, she is informed that Antia has left on her own and has requested that her new location not be given to her mother.
Though the film clocks in under an hour-and-a-half, it feels twice that long. The pace is sluggish, and nothing very special happens along the way.
How this snore of a movie received generally favorable reviews is something of an international mystery. About the nicest thing I can think to say about it is that the scenery of Spain is occasionally enjoyable.
REVIEW
Julieta
Who: With Emma Suarez, Adriana Ugarte, Daniel Grao, Dario Grandinetti, Inma Cuesta and Rossy de Palma. Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar.
Rated: R.
Running time: 96 minutes.
When: Opens Friday.
Where: Cedar Lee Theatre, 2163 Lee Road, Cleveland Heights.
Grade: C
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