Salma Hayek Chloe Sevigny John Lithgow Connie Britton Amy Landecker Jay Duplass Dave Warshofsky
Still waters run deep, and Beatriz (Hayek) is a
fascinating combination of a diffident but fearless woman whose passions burst
out in full force when she is outraged.
After a turbulent childhood in Mexico and losing her family, she has
devoted her life to the healing arts, working in a cancer center. She is revered by the mother of one of
her teenage patients who is alive and well, and Cathy (Britton) continues to
have her come to her elegant home for massages after her daughter has gone to
college. Cathy is very gracious,
and when Beatriz can’t start her car one day after an appointment, she urges
the therapist to stay for dinner.
Her husband, Grant (Warshofsky), thinks this is not a good idea for a
business dinner, but accedes to her wishes.
What no one realizes is that the evening will
be a huge, head-on clash of values and cultures. When the evening starts, it’s a little awkward, with the
society women showing their squeamishness about a medical condition and
treating it as a gossip item (off-putting for someone working at a cancer
center), and incredulous about Beatriz having a pet goat (“Did she say ‘goat’?), but all are trying very hard to
be understanding and politically correct.
Unfortunately for the evening, one of the
guests, Doug (Lithgow), pushes every button in Beatriz’ psyche. He is dominating, condescending (asks
Beatriz to bring him another drink after mistaking her for one of the help,
probes her status as an immigrant), boastful about his riches, and openly
advocates going for whatever is best for oneself. He is a businessman to the core, and to h--- with anyone
(protesters, regulators, environmentalists) standing in his way. He has and will handle them all. This doesn’t sit well with someone who
lost her family and her whole town in Mexico when American developers came with
empty promises of jobs and wrecked the village and its environment.
One of the things I loved about this story is a
humble person being fearless in circumstances where she is among very wealthy
people. The art of the creative
team of writer (Mike White) and director (Miguel Arteta) here is in taking a
neutral stance between two deeply divided sides. We don’t just have
empathy for the immigrant health care worker filled with compassion, whose life
has been so difficult, we also come away with some understanding and
identification with the privileged guests and hosts as well. They’re clearly shown to be trying to
do the politically correct thing, and trying to understand what Beatriz stands
for and is advocating. [This
excludes Doug, whom I saw as a big blow-hard with little capacity for
appreciation of anything beyond his self-interest. The most he can do is shake his head in reaction to
Beatriz. Despite her confrontation
and a tender touch (massaging his tense shoulders, did impress him), nothing
she says ever really gets through to him.]
In all this seriousness, there is great
comedy. It is the best of comedy,
that which has substance underlying it.
We chuckle at the words of both Beatriz and Doug; they have a ring of
truthfulness in their absurdity.
And the ending of the film is truly creative in its loyalty to the gist
of the story, its grounding in reality, and its surprise.
Salma Hayek does a bravura performance, with
her intense focusing eyes, her engagement with the other characters with
different emotional valences, and her range of states of being—at home,
meditating, doing therapy, friendliness, encountering strangeness, and
experiencing outrage. Supporting
actors add to the colorful mix of personalities, and the experienced, talented
Lithgow is especially good in counterpoint to Hayek.
Cinematographer Wyatt Garfield follows the
story visually to enhance every scene, then he goes into wonderful artistry
when he shows a flock of white birds suddenly flying out over a waterway
enclosed with greenery and when he gives us an image onscreen of what Beatriz is
visualizing when she is fantasizing/meditating toward the end.
An artful film about a clash of
cultures and values, but with much appreciated humor.
Grade: A By
Donna R. Copeland
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