As "Rosa's Wedding" (2020 release from Spain; 97 min.) opens, we are introduced to Rosa, a 40-something who is overwhelmed by well-wishers as she is running a minim-marathon, and she doesn't stop at the finish line, literally fleeing everyone. (Turns out it was a bad dream.) At work, at home, with family, she is counted on for many things, and Rosa is tired of it. But can she get out of the human rat race?
Couple of comments: this is the latest film from Spanish director.(and co-writer) Iciar Bollain. Here she brings us a look at a midlife crisis by a 40-something woman who seemingly does the job of 3-4-5 people. I suppose this is Spain's answer to Chile's 2013 "Gloria" or even the US 1978 film "An Unmarried Woman". Bollain keeps the tone fairly light (it is a comedy after all),but the gender points are made crystal clear and unmistaken. And with family like that, who needs enemies anyway? Candela Pena is excellent in the title role, but the support staff is quite good as well. The film was shot in and around in Valencia (southeastern Spain),and that only adds to the appeal of the film.
"Rosa's Wedding" was released in Spain but recently popped up on HBO Max, where I caught it. If you are in the mood for a light comedy that looks at at the midlife crisis from the woman's perspective or are simply looking for a good foreign movie, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
100% - Critics
6.4Keywords: woman directorsibling relationshipfemale protagonistmidlife crisisworkaholic
Plot summary
In 2019 Valencia (eastern Spain) 45-year-old Rosa is at the edge of the abyss: besides her work as a costume designer for films, she has a second full-time job helping her dysfunctional family. Her older brother Armando is an English teacher who is heading for divorce from his wife Marga and their two children ignore him openly; her sister Violeta works as interpreter at conferences and feels displaced by her young partners and fears that she'll be fired because of it; her daughter Lidia lives in Manchester raising her baby sons alone after her husband leaves; her father Antonio, an aging widower who still deeply mourns his wife two years after her death, says he can't live alone in his own house anymore and wants to move in with her; and her boyfriend Rafa is too busy with work to really listen to her when she needs to talk. Overwhelmed, Rosa travels to her birth town Benicassim to visit her mother's former tailor shop. Dreaming of a new life of freedom and happiness, Rosa decides to reopen the shop--and marry herself. While Armando and Violeta frantically search for Rosa when they realize she's gone, Lidia return to Spain with the twins and finds Rosa's house empty of Rosa and her furniture. Realizing where she is Armando, Violeta, and Lidia travel to Benicassim and discover Rosa's intention to marry. Assuming that she's about to marry Rafa, Armando consults a wedding planner, determined to give Rosa a stylish wedding; the news quickly spreads through the town. With Lidia feeling like a stranger to her mother, Violeta receiving bad news about her job, and Armando planning to sell the tailor shop to make extensions to his school, Rosa looks for a way to explain her true intentions before her own wedding gets out of hand.
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Living through the female midlife crisis (Spanish perspective)
Brilliant comedy with an edge
Brilliant romantic comedy subversive of the patriarchal model, it takes up years after they were married and he has disappeared, when the rest of her family relies on her. From the initial sequence where Rosa is on her own giving it her all, and more as she collapses on the beach, to the final party on the beach with the extended family who still do not understand her needs. Set in the region of Valencia and bilingual, the situation is universal but its specificity recalls Berlanga's satirical wit as it resets it from a woman's perspective.