(2001)
directed by Alfonso Cuaron
The film’s title translates as “And your mama too.” The story unfolds in the form of a road trip across modern Mexico. “Y tu mama tambien” is intelligent, fast paced, utterly fearless, and ultimately devastating. The love triangle which is central to the film is presented with a lyrical realism that recalls the French New Wave masterpiece “Jules and Jim.”
Julio (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Tenoch (Diego Luna) are seventeen year old boys. They are obsessed with sex in the all consuming way typical of seventeen year old boys. They are at loose ends because their girlfriends are touring Italy. They meet Luisa (Maribel Verdu) at a wedding. Luisa is married to Jano, Tenoch’s older cousin. Julio and Tenoch flirt with Luisa and invite her to join them on a road trip to a beautiful, isolated beach. When Luisa asks the name of the beach, the boys quickly make up a name for their imaginary beach, “Heaven’s Mouth.” When Luisa learns that her husband has cheated on her, she surprises the boys by accepting their invitation.
Together, the three of them set off for the beach. Along the way, Luisa questions the boys about their sex lives and eventually joins their sexual escapades. She invites them into her room and tricks them into kissing each other. Without being in the least pornographic, “Y tu mama tambien” is realistic about sex in a way American R-rated movies can never be. The sex uncovers deeply hidden emotions. Julio and Tenoch learn uncomfortable truths about themselves. We see Luisa alone in her hotel room sobbing inconsolably.
The road trip to the beach shows us another side of Mexico. We pass by police checkpoints, see drug busts, witness traffic accidents, and drive past shanty towns. We are reminded that the poor and uneducated have been left behind in modern Mexico. We are startled when the soundtrack suddenly goes silent and we hear a narrator who points out the village where Tenoch’s nanny was born and left at thirteen to look for work. The narrator identifies a stretch of road where, two years before, there was a deadly accident.
The beach is an unspoiled paradise. They are greeted by a fisherman and his family. For generations, the fisherman’s ancestors have managed to eke out a living here. The fisherman sells them fried fish and rents them a place to stay. Miraculously, there really is a beach called “Heavens Mouth.” The narrator informs us the beach will soon be purchased for a tourist hotel and that the fisherman will eventually be forced to work as a janitor at the hotel.
The theme of death hovers over “Y tu mama tambien.” Early in the film, after smoking some weed, Luisa tells her two companions about her first sexual experience. She tells them that her first lover subsequently died in a motorcycle accident at the age of seventeen. At the beach, Luisa tries to teach a little girl to float in the sea “like a real dead body.” The full meaning of these scenes is revealed in a shattering epilogue when Julio and Tenoch meet one year after the events in the film.
Movies about sex are often told from a male perspective. A man’s sexual desire is a powerful force in the world and often shapes the way a film’s story is told. “Y tu mama tambien” could be described as a coming of age story of two young men set side by side with sharply observed details about class divisions in modern Mexico. Cuaron is a master storyteller, however, and the ending of the film reveals that the most important story in the film belongs to Luisa. Take a moment and think back over the events in the film and you suddenly realize that many key scenes are shot from Luisa’s point of view.
We barely notice the papers scattered on the bed when Luisa is on the phone with her husband. What is their significance? Why is she so quick to tell her husband their marriage is over? Why does she tell her husband he “will understand?” Is she protecting her husband? Why did she accept the boy’s invitation? For the boys, the name of the beach, “Heaven’s Mouth,” has sexual connotations. What does the name “Heaven’s Mouth” mean to Luisa? Why is Luisa sobbing? When they arrive at the beach, the narrator tells us Luisa feels “afraid.” Why is she afraid? Do you recall Luisa’s reaction when the fisherman’s wife tells her she is just the “right age” to have children of her own? Why does Luisa decide to stay behind when the boys depart? When the boys depart and we see Luisa standing alone in the sea, these words appear on the screen: “Life is foam. Give your love away like the sea.”
The director hides a secret that answers all these questions. Alfonso Cuaron, who also wrote and directed the sublime “Roma,” is a director of breathtaking talent and breadth. “Y tu mama tambien” is a powerful work of art that hides its message in plain view. When Luisa’s secret is revealed at the end of the film, we are emotionally overwhelmed.