Cruz control: Penélope is mesmerising
There are times in Ma Ma (12A)
when Penélope Cruz looks like Frankenstein’s monster. That’s because Magda, the schoolteacher she plays in this heartbreaking masterpiece, has been diagnosed with breast cancer.
For two hours, we watch Magda as she loses her hair after chemotherapy, as she comes round from a mastectomy and, towards the end of the picture, as she’s told whether it’s all been worth it. From our point of view, it has.
Luis Tosar plays Arturo, a widowed soccer scout who meets Magda when she’s watching her son Dani (Teo Planell) play for the school team. It will fall to Arturo not only to tell Dani how to take on the rival team, but how life doesn’t half like kicking a man when he’s down. Strangely, Julio Medem’s film isn’t a downer itself. The story is told with such clarity that it leaves you feeling braced not broken.
Cruz made her name working with Pedro Almodóvar – and though none of their movies together feature in The
Almodóvar Collection (18) this six-disc box set is unmissable. True, Kika is a clunker, but Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown and What Have I Done To Deserve This? retain their power to shock and awe even the most avid Almodóvar aficionado. Shocks aplenty in Preacher (18) Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s ten-part adaptation of the DC Comics strip. Dominic Cooper plays Jesse Custer, a Texas priest who teams up with an Irish vampire (Joseph Gilgun) and, well, kills loads of bad guys. It’s a bit restless for my tastes, but there’s no denying the show’s wit. Christopher Bray