Spain · 2019
1h 58m
Director Isabel Coixet
Starring Natalia de Molina, Greta Fernández, Sara Casasnovas, Tamar Novas
Genre Drama, Romance
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This biographical drama tells the story of Marcela and Elisa, a lesbian couple living in Spain in 1901. Facing suspicion and violence from their neighbors, Elisa takes on the identity of "Mario," a man, so that she and Marcela can live together. A harrowing historical tale of perseverance and courage.
The Hollywood Reporter by Clarence Tsui
Sadly for a story so fraught with desire and violence, Elisa & Marcela is painfully lacking in frisson and danger. Despite competent performances from her two young stars, Coixet fails to inject the girls’ relationship with complexity, tension and conflict. In the end, they are ciphers in a message-driven movie, which is made worse by contrived one-liners and gestures.
A dully made, frequently ridiculous eye-roller shot in standard issue black-and-white that gussies itself up as a brave clarion call for gay rights.
Deep down this is a conventional and predictably plotted period drama about a clash between bodice-ripping passion and social mores.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Writer-director Isabel Coixet has taken a real-life love story from 20th-century LGBT Spanish history and turned it into something bafflingly passionless, joyless and excessively tasteful, an anti-alchemy assisted by stately monochrome photography that makes every frame look like a postcard from an art shop.
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