Chilean director Sebastián Lelio’s latest feature film, A Fantastic Woman, is the year’s most highly touted piece of transgender representation. Just looking at the laurels bestowed upon it will tell you this is an “important film” — it won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay and at the Berlin International Film Festival, will be competing for Best Foreign Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, and is rocking a solid 93 percent on every film-fan’s least favorite aggregate website. But the reality of Lelio’s portrait of a trans woman in grief is that it lacks a sense of interiority and understanding. A Fantastic Woman is the work of a cis man trying to come into an understanding of his trans central character, and failing to do so.
A Fantastic Woman opens on a man I swore was Jeremy Irons in a wig — according to The Internet this is actually Chilean actor Francisco Reyes but I remain suspicious. Jeremy Irons or not, inside the movie’s universe, this is Orlando, a cleanly dressed older fella of gentle disposition who we follow as he sits in a sauna and then saunters off to a nightclub. Here, Orlando watches a woman thirty years his junior sing — by the matchcuts between their eye contact, we can assume there is a passion between the two.
The singer is Marina, the fantastic woman in question. Played with precision by Daniela Vega, a trans Chilean actress, she buttresses the entire film and boosts it into becoming recommendable. Marina and Orlando are in love — they live together and are going on a wonderful vacation in ten days — but post-coital tragedy strikes that night. Orlando suffers and aneurysm and unceremoniously sheds this coil.
From here, the movie unfolds into a tale of a trans woman denied the right to grieve by her deceased lover’s transphobic family. To say much more would be to spoil what plot is left, but, essentially, we are presented with a series of escalating encounters wherein Marina must endure different sorts of dehumanization.
I give credit to the movie for showing that this sort of trauma can unload from every crevice of society: doctors who refuse to accept her gender identity; police going strictly by the name on her ID; acquaintances dead-naming; and so on. In fact, I’ve heard no crueler words spoken in a film than by Orlando’s ex-wife when she confronts Marina for the first time: “When I look at you, I don’t know what I’m seeing. A chimera, that’s what I’m seeing.”
But for every trauma-wrought moment in A Fantastic Woman that feels earned, there are others which just feel excessive– in particular, an act of practical torture committed via scotch tape.
Moments of magical realism are inserted, seemingly at random, to liven the proceedings. These range from the sublime to the stupid. On one end of the spectrum, the movie gives us one of my favorite scenes of the year: a beautiful dance number, where Marina sparkles in the glow of colorful light and opulent clothes. In contrast, a scene where Marina walks against a strong gust of wind, whose strength becomes greater and greater, was laughably absurd. Not in the good way. Though even this was better than the film’s excessively obvious use Aretha Franklin’s “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
A visual motif is peppered throughout of Marina reflected — this, too, culminates in the absurd, when Marina is walking down the street and two laborers holding a giant reflective surface walk past. Much like in a cartoon, the workers bicker and stop for a moment, allowing their giant mirror to wobble and wiggle. The camera moves in and we see the shimmering reflection as though it were reality. What all this is trying to say remains unclear. Is her own sense of self uncertain? That doesn’t seem to be the case. Is it a reflection of her inner turmoil? Maybe. Or is Lelio merely fascinated with trying to understand Marina, hoping to gain some insight by viewing her through the looking glass.
I don’t want my criticisms to understate how great Daniela Vega is in this film, however. Much more could be written on the brilliance of her performance than I could ever pontificate on the merits of the film. In my head-cannon of the Oscars, she would surely be a top contender for Best Actress. I just wish the script understood Marina as well as Daniela did.
In short, the movie is neither good nor bad. It’s just okay – the kind of film that certainly won’t be remembered in ten years’ time. Unless, of course, it will become known as the jumping off point for a fantastic new talent.
A Fantastic Woman
2017
dir. Sebastián Lelio
104 mins.
Now playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre and Kendall Square Cinema.
