Mexican Dream (2024) Film Review
Laura Plancarte‘s dramatic film, Mexican Dream, is an experience like no other. A courageous and unfiltered review of a reality that’s more universal and relevant than we think. A journey through motherhood, womanhood, and societal standards that has enough grit to shift your views about some cultural standpoints the world has led you to believe. It’s not that the film provides something different about the reality of Mexican values. It’s that Plancarte’s clever and careful artistic decision has led to one of the most honest films about its subject you will ever see.
The subject of the film is Malena, a woman with a past who’s forced to look back for the sake of revisiting the relationship she has with her teenage children. Unfortunately, she was also forced to abandon her past life because she had an abusive relationship that she had to escape from, thus leaving her children to grow up by themselves. Today, Male is a new woman in a new relationship. However, with this new life come new perks. Her new partner has convinced her to try to become a mother again through IVF treatment.
This is Mexican Dream, an exploration of Malena’s new reality, which is only sustainable because of her strength to keep on living in a society that truly sees women as secondary elements. When Malena speaks with her female peers, we’re able to see the effects of a long-established sense of patriarchy in a country that sticks to classic values because everyone’s afraid to take one step beyond. As her journey gains more potential with the literal creation of a strong household, Malena bears witness to something horrific: the raw reality of her new relationship. What was once a loving partner is now a monster who sees her as a breeding opportunity because that’s what “she’s supposed to be” in the Mexican underworld they live in. Malena’s trauma, one that’s not entirely visible, is also fattened by her drive to reconnect with her teenage children. When it comes to strong women in cinema, we don’t often see characters like Malena. Her teenage daughter rejects her with violence, and Malena only remains there because her love for the idea of being a caring figure is just too strong. She just accepts it as a pebble on the road to becoming someone better.
Nevertheless, Mexican Dream is not only Malena’s journey. This is Plancarte’s fierce statement as a filmmaker as well, because Mexican Dream isn’t a regular drama stemming from an idea spewed out on a script. It’s something much more important in terms of film production, the necessity to shoot under a veil of realism, and paying tribute to the millions of women around the world. Malena is played by María Magdalena Reyes, Malena in real life. The film started as a documentary about her, and the director simply provided a phone that she could record her life with. As the project progressed, both decided to turn the documentary into a feature film, written by Reyes and Plancarte, and tell Malena’s life story with a narrative arc that could provide insight into the stories of all the women they represented.
The result is a groundbreaking feature that travels back and forth between reality and fiction, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. It’s entirely irrelevant what is real and what is not in Malena’s story because those nuances make it a more effective exercise in storytelling than anything you’ve seen regarding its theme and subject. This also allows Reyes to be one of the best “performers” in the current indie circle, but then again, you will never know when she’s actually acting or when she’s playing an event that’s still raw in her mind. The beauty of her execution is that you won’t know whether Malena is doing her best to restrain emotional pain, and when she’s releasing some unseen force, the dramatic recreation is allowing her. In any case, Mexican Dream is a great opportunity for a cathartic moment that millions of women need to have.
