Annie Gottlieb

Spoiler alert: The philandering Doctor is so solicitous of the stoical Cleo that I wondered whether an unspoken subtext of the plot was was that he might have fathered her baby. Anybody else have this thought? Am I reading in too much? Think of the brutal, having-his-way male energy of his introduction, as the unseen but forceful driver jamming a too-big car into a narrow passageway, with the energy of a dairy bull. If that were the film's secret, magine the twist it would add to Cleo's relationship with "her" family. Anyway, the film is emotionally tough to watch, immersive, gives a sense of the chaos and hierarchical cruelty of Mexico City in 1970 (men, always, at the top) and the aplomb of those (from street peddlers to hospital staff) who manage to wend their way through it unsinkable and upright. The male director's empathy for women is remarkable.