The Palme d'Or nominated "Julieta" is a new 2016 movie from Spain. The director here is one of the country's most known filmmakers: Pedro Almodóvar, and he also (as usual) wrote this one based on based on the short stories from Canadian Alice Munro (Away from her). The film stars Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suárez who play the title character during different ages. This is the story of one woman and as such it works all in all I guess. Yes there were moments that felt a bit pretentious like with the running deer or the great moral background story behind the old man dying to the train, but if you manage to ignore these a bit, it is a pretty fine character study and Almodóvar once again succeeds as an inspirational writer. he has been doing more comedy in the last years, but here we see that he (at almost 70) is also still able to produce quality scripts when it comes to films that are 100% drama. Family drama in this case as here it is all about the title character's relationship to her daughter, even if the film ends right away before we see her in the now. The ending, with all the tragedy and drama, is also a bit of an uplifting one as she got the man back who really seems to love her. The men in Julieta's life are also a core component of the film, especially the one who is the father to the girl and who faces an unlucky fate as a fisherman. I would not say that this film delivered brilliance in any area particular, but directing, writing and acting are pretty good and certainly good enough to consider this one of the better Spanish films of the year. And with Almodóvar, as always, you know for sure that you get top-notch work in terms of cinematography, sets and costumes. There is a slight reference to homosexuality in the film, but even if it is apparently really big in fact, it only plays a minor role as we watch the film from Julieta's perspective, find out what she finds out and thus don't know about it until the very end. If this film had been about her daughter mostly (actually her story deserves her own film almost as a bit of a duology),then it would have been entirely different and a major plot point. Also the scenes at the correction facility would have been really interesting. As a whole, I think it is a good watch for everybody who loves Spanish cinema and they certainly won't be disappointed with Pedro's newest. I give it a thumbs-up.

Julieta is a troubled woman living in Madrid with boyfriend Lorenzo. They are moving when she runs into Bea, former best friend of her daughter Antia. Bea tells her about running into Anita and her three children. It's been 12 years since Anita ran away and Julieta has never met her own grandchildren. Julieta moves back into her old apartment hoping Antia would contact her. She starts writing a letter recounting her life starting with meeting Anita's father Xoan. There is Xoan's artist friend Ava. Julieta's parents have marital issues. An incident sets Anita off with a radically changed personality.

Am I the only who wanted and expected to see adult Antia and her three kids? It seems like the movie is missing its third act. It talks about Antia's change but it doesn't confront it. Often, it's other people talking about her change. It needs the big reunion scene. It needs to be more explicit about her issues and her suspicions about her mother. There are loads of stuff left on the table. I'm assuming that Pedro Almodóvar is making the movie about Julieta but I'm just as interested in Antia. This is a nice character piece but I want more. Maybe he'll make Antia next. That would make for a nice double feature.

After taking something of a major nose-dive with "I'm So Excited" that many other directors might not have recovered from, Almodovar is back on something approaching his best form. In many respects, "Julieta" is his 'All About My Daughter' though it doesn't have the same emotional clout that "All About My Mother" or "Volver" had. This is Pedro is a very serious mode, perhaps too serious; maybe a little bit of humor might not have gone amiss.

Julieta is played by two different actresses, (Adriana Ugarte and Emma Suarez),at different stages of her life and much of the film is told in flashbacks. These women, and Almodovar's meticulous direction, hold our attention but I was never moved by the film in a way I felt I should have been, at least until the very end.

The source material is three stories by Alice Munro, none of which I've read, but considering how seamlessly Almodovar keeps the material flowing I am sure he has done a very fine job of adapting them for the screen, nor can I imagine how the original conception of filming this in English with Meryl Streep might have worked. So not quite top-notch Almodovar but proof, nevertheless, that he can still deliver the goods when he's called to.