★
In 1885, Elisa and Marcela meet and form great friendship that grows into a forbidden love that they have to keep hidden.
Classification: 15
Despite a foundation in history and a compelling true story, Elisa & Marcela is a dreadfully boring tale that doesn’t do anything to interest its audience. Even though the film shows the trials and bigotry the two women faced in 1900’s Spain, director Isabel Coixet can’t create any gripping empathy or tension as the audience will definitely lose interest through the tedious runtime. While the two actresses Natalia de Molina and Greta Fernández have a nice chemistry together, the script, dialogue and direction just keeps putting the characters through a series of predictable events with no cohesive storytelling and editing to make any element of the film engaging.
At times it feels Elisa & Marcela is doing the bare minimum because of the subject matter. That because it’s a true story, because it’s highlighting bigotry that it shall be praised as progressive, but nothing about Elisa & Marcela feels progressive nor do the events of the film really capture the sense of horror that faces homosexuals during that time period. It feels like a checklist at times, that if Isabel Coixet shows graphic sex scenes, homophobic abuse and the unjust consequences of their actions then it will be a good movie because it shows how love triumphs over hate. However at no point are you really given a chance to empathise or connect with these characters, the central plot point of their romance at times feels like a comedy with how the film executes their attempts to conceal it from their neighbours. Elisa soon pretends to be a man, posing as her male cousin who will marry Marcela but the storyline is executed with such indifference that the most interesting part of the true story becomes the most ridiculous part of the film.
With many films depicting homosexual relationships, a large part of the story shows the struggles they face from opposition from family, friends either from religious belief and general homophobia. Elisa & Marcela depicts this abuse but again the direction and execution of these scenes has the audience feel nothing, there are scenes where Elisa is physically assaulted both as a woman and in her male disguise and every time Coixet is unable to generate any empathy in those scenes despite the detestable behaviour on display. Another issues is the absence of music from much of the film leaving many of the scenes lifeless and devoid of much needed emotional support that could come from a decent score, especially for a forbidden romance tale.
It’s presenting itself as an emotional arthouse film about love’s triumph but Elisa & Marcela triumphs with nothing. It’s a struggle to finish as there is so little to latch on to and at times just feels exploitative with the themes and source material. It just doesn’t have any appropriate dramatic weight which makes the events of the film almost insulting to the factual reality.
Director: Isabel Coixet
Cast: Natalia de Molina, Greta Fernández
Release Date: June 7th 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix.
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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