Review: A Fantastic Woman (aka Una Mujer Fantástica)
It should be so simple. A man dies. The woman he loves should be allowed to grieve. Yet Marina is denied that right time and time again for the simple reason that she is transgendered.
In Sebastián Lelio's terrific and deeply compassionate drama, A Fantastic Woman (aka Una Mujer Fantástica), Marina, played by transgender actress Daniela Vega, is first glimpsed singing in a nightclub as her lover Orlando (Francisco Reyes) walks in. Orlando is 57, owns a printing company, is divorced, and is clearly in love with her. The feeling is mutual. The lovers celebrate her birthday and look forward to their upcoming trip to see the Iguazu Falls. Their happiness turns out to be short-lived, however, when, later that night, Francisco suffers an aneurysm, falls down a flight of stairs, and dies in the hospital. From thereon in, Marina is subjected to one humiliation after another as she's treated like a second-class citizen, made to feel invisible and less than simply because, in most everyone's eyes, she is not a real woman.
"When I look at you, I don't know what I'm seeing. A chimera, that's what I'm seeing," says Francisco's ex-wife Sonia (Aline Küppenheim), who is obviously still bitter over her husband leaving her for Marina. She refuses to have Marina attend either Francisco's vigil or his funeral, citing her wish to protect her children. Francisco's son Bruno (Nicolás Saavedra) is no better, deliberately and repeatedly calling her Marisa, takes away the beloved dog that Francisco left to her, and keeps telling her to move out of the apartment that she shared with Francisco. Francisco's brother Gabo (Luis Gnecco), at least, treats her with a modicum of respect and kindness but has little power over Sonia and Bruno's behaviour. Nor does he have any control over Adriana (Amparo Noguera), head of the Sexual Offences Investigation Unit, who regards her with suspicion and believes that she and Francisco were in a relationship that most likely included drugs and abuse.
That Marina withstands this wave after wave of verbal, emotional and physical abuse when all she wants to do is mourn is a testament to her strength and resilience. The casual prejudice Marina encounters - cops who insist on referring to her as a "he," the look of revulsion Adriana proffers upon her contrasting with the hollow words of support and understanding - feel just as real and unsettling as a more endangering moment she experiences later in the film. Marina's careful concessions - "We're friends" she tells the doctor and the cops when they ask how she knows Francisco - also convey the minefield she's had to navigate for most of her life. Her dignity and grace under such unwarranted intolerance is nothing short of fantastic.
Lelio continues to prove himself one of the most promising filmmakers working today, infusing humanity into a tale that could have easily steered into the sensationalistic and melodramatic. There are a handful of fantastical detours - a dance number with Marina garbed in tinsel, Marina making her way through gale-force winds - that speak to her state of mind as well as offer relief from her harsh reality. Lelio also draws a remarkable performance out of Vega, who transfixes despite a somewhat limited range.
A Fantastic Woman (aka Una Mujer Fantástica)
Directed by: Sebastián Lelio
Written by: Sebastián Lelio, Gonzalo Maz
Starring: Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco, Aline Küppenheim, Nicolás Saavedra, Amparo Noguera
