NZIFF Film Review: "Ema" (2019).

From the director of Jackie comes Ema. This Chilean drama film directed by Pablo Larraín, and written by Guillermo Calderón and Alejandro Moreno. The film centres on a couple who deal with the aftermath of an adoption that goes awry as their household falls apart.

By August 2018, Mariana di Girolamo, Gael García Bernal, Santiago Cabrera, and Catalina Saavedra were cast in a film with Larraín as director. In preparation for the role, di Girolamo took dancing lessons. She also went to ballet and pilates classes to improve her posture and make her look like a professional dancer. At the same time, principal photography commenced and took place throughout Valparaíso, Región de Valparaíso, Chile.

The film stars di Girolamo, Bernal, Cabrera, and Saavedra. The performances are ones that don't quite transcend. I never felt like I was watching them become their characters, but more of they just played their characters, but they were still stirring in their own right. Di Girolamo gave a virtuoso performance as Ema, capturing her breathy feminine tones and the fashion-plate image that hides inner devastation, hinting at a contained breakdown in the privacy of her own empty household.

A uniquely constructed psychological character study, Chilean director Pablo Larrain tackles it all with unconventional aesthetics and non-sequential editing. A complex portrait of a personality drowning in personal turmoil can be very speculative. The portrait that Chilean director Pablo Larraín painted with Ema has so much color and life and emotion that it may be one of the intriguing dramas ever committed to film. The film has a note worthy performance from di Girolamo and a truly unconventional score but it's a series of well done events that doesn't form a cohesive whole. It's enlightening and insightful, using unusually creative filming, to experience Ema's life and perspective firsthand. While many small details are profoundly beautiful, Larraín's attempt feels weighed down by self-importance, as if history were a wet blanket of one's own making that is ultimately inescapable. Although the film suffers from complacency, it is still a visual spectacle, full of emotions, great performances, an impressive production design and above all, much intimacy within the pain. And yet, for every element in the film that's obvious and overplayed, there are stray, marginal details that manage to resonate, moments during which the pretense falls away and its amorphous stew of ideas finally coalesce. The film is a self-serious affair, and despite its dedication to getting under the skin of its titular character, it remains largely on the surface of things - glossy, sleek, and to a certain extent oddly detached. Larraín's drama is soaked in atmosphere, bleeding emotion, life, death, happiness, sadness and anxiety. It's easy to recognize some of the shared elements between Ema and Jackie. But it's still striking to see Larraín tackle such quintessentially Chilean material and managing to hit the mark so cleanly once again. Not your typical biopic, the film is an extraordinary exploration of a complex woman navigating her loss.

Simon says Ema receives:

Also, see my review for Jackie.