Majorthebys
Charming and brutal
Freaktana
A Major Disappointment
Ava-Grace Willis
Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Taha Avalos
The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.
anna-39
Funny how opinions can be different. I perfectly respect that many people found this movie a masterpiece, but I found it pretentious, dishonest, an external exhibition of "misery" full of stereotypes (and quite a conservative undertone). The fallen angel girl that goes through resurrection, the Madonna mother, bad (really really b a d) father, abusive and violent self-centered boyfriend, etc. All too calculated, staged for my taste - there are so many other films that I find more honest in their portray of poverty and misery (but with dignity). And then above all the fairy-tale end. It seemed so much like an imagined poverty by someone who has never experienced it.The only thing that I really enjoyed of that film was the erotic electricity between two older characters that is a rare thing to see in a movie. In my opinion, that gives an extra start to this movie.
antonio_von_cuesta
When I saw this movie, nobody told me his plot. I just watched it and at the end, my heart was broke, but was too stunned. The story is so hard of tell, and Benito Zambrano, the director, does it slowly, showing all the sensitive possible, and making cry everybody.But... what wants to show this movie? Only one thing: A mother's love. The performance of Maria Galiana is absolutely PERFECT. Ana Fernandez and Carlos Alvarez Novoa are correct, but Maria Galiana is better than they. I cried watching the movie because of the end, just look the scene when the mother's sleeping in front of the sunset. Just beautiful.The powerful of the images and the impact of the performances make of SOLAS the best movie of 90s in Spain.
writers_reign
I stumbled on this DVD in my local library having never heard of the film itself or anyone connected with it either in front of or behind the camera. That's as good a definition of 'serendipity' as any. Although there are perhaps a dozen players it's essentially a three-hander, four if we stretch a point and include Paco De Osca's husband/father from hell who indirectly generates most of what happens with the other three, the other three being Maria (Ana Fernandez) a 35 year-old country girl long fled to the city as soon as she was old enough to escape her abusive drunken father and with little or no formal education is obliged to take a succession of menial cleaning jobs and provide a sex-object for macho Spanish males. As the story begins De Osca has just been admitted to hospital in the city and his down-trodden wife (Maria Galiana) has accompanied him and is reluctantly put up by Maria for the duration. The third member of this morose little group is widower Vecino (Carlos Alvarez-Novoa) who lives in the same apartment building as Maria and quickly attaches himself to her mother. For the mother it is a revelation to meet a man who is not only not an animal but also has finer feelings but she has become habituated to her role as doormat and when her husband is released from hospital she returns with him to their village leaving us with the impression that should her husband die she will return and take up with Vecino, who, in the wake of the mother's departure, persuades Maria not to abort the child she is carrying (the father has no interest in a permanent relationship and offers to underwrite an abortion) and promises to act as a grandfather. This is a study of three lost souls and despite the downbeat theme it is actually uplifting. The acting throughout is more than competent, that of the three principals brilliant. 9/10
Josh
"Solas" is a wonderful movie with a great plot and great actors.Maria Galiana as an old and rural woman that goes to the city to see her daughter and her illness husband made me cry.Is an special movie with a good screenplay.I'm an andalusian boy and movies always has been unfair with Andalusia.In all those movies,andalusian were funny and stereotyped people of the flolcorical Spain.This movie show us how is the life of very rural women in my country.Also,"Solas" is one of the best movies about the relationship between a mother and her daughter that i've ever seen.As loneliness' portrait ,"Solas" os powerful too.Is a movie that insinuate more than what show it,as all good movies.For all those whose dreams are not come true,this movie show us that the loneliness is not the best way to do.
