Showing @ Cineworld, Edinburgh on Sat 21 & Sun 22 Jun
Fernando Eimbcke/ Mexico / 2013 / 82 mins
This gentle coming of age tale, set in an off-season seaside hotel, unfolds as lazily as a beach holiday. The lack of action creates the illusion of observing the characters in real time. You’d almost swear that you can hear the pubescent hero’s voice drop as you watch.
Lucio Giménez Cacho plays the young Hector with a complete lack of affectation. He and his young, single mother Paloma (María Renée Prudencio) spend the first half hour of the film in apparent isolation, swimming, snacking and sunbathing. It’s a pitch-perfect portrayal of the tedium that often punctuates holidays, and develops the obvious bond between the pair: entirely comfortable in each other’s company, they even discuss Hector’s choice of underwear with no apparent awkwardness.
The action doesn’t exactly pick up when Hector befriends the teenaged Jazmin (Danae Reynaud), but the dynamic swiftly changes and both mother and son are forced to adjust accordingly. Jazmin and Hector’s fumbling attempts at courtship will strike a chord with anyone who found it easier to snog their first love than to speak to them. But it is Paloma’s quiet desperation that provides the film’s deepest emotional impact. As she cannonballs into the pool in her red bikini, it’s heartbreakingly clear that she’s desperate to hold onto the child who is already leaving her behind.