Movie Review — Don’t Be Fooled By the Hype, ‘Roma’ Is A Boring Slog
The hype machine is very good at its job. It slaps on tons of five stars on its movie poster, pumps out raving reviews from film festivals and well-known and respected movie critics, and throws around the word “masterpiece” like presents on Christmas Day. However, for all the glimmering lights and spectacle, the pomp, prestige, and grand-standing that is part and parcel during Oscar season, “Roma” doesn’t even come close to holding up to it.
I know I stand in a very small minority by saying this. Many, many people seemed to have enjoyed Roma. When Cuarón released “Gravity,” I also stood in the minority on that one as well (I mostly hated it). “Children of Men,” on the other hand, I enjoyed and I think it combined two of Cuarón’s strengths, namely crafting subtle character portraits with powerful visuals; it’s a great little gem that many ignored.
After Children of Men, however, Cuarón quickly tossed aside the character piece and focused solely on visuals and spectacle, two things I find people love to rave about but overall don’t hold water.
Which brings me to Roma.
Roma is boring, dull, slow, and for the most part, a cliche and lifeless adventure (I’m using that word ironically) through 1970’s Mexico. It’s from the perspective of a maid named Cleo (Yalitza Aparici) as she cleans a middle-class family’s house during a tumultuous time in both Mexico City’s history and Cleo’s life.
Visually, it’s hard to deny Cuarón has crafted a beautiful film. Every shot is stunning. Often, he utilizes long, one-shot scenes, following Cleo as she cleans. It’s very well done and one of the better elements of the film. Every shot is perfectly crafted and necessary. It emphasizes some piece of the story, telling it in a way that gives it texture and life. Cuarón is good at visual storytelling, there’s no doubt. I think we can all agree on that part.
Unfortunately, visuals only take you so far in storytelling, especially when it’s two-hours long. This is my primary issue with Roma but it’s important. While Cuarón paints a picture of the life of this family and Cleo’s place in it, everything is surface level. Much of the unfolding drama (when it does finally unfold) comes straight out of a bad soap opera. Pregnancy out of wedlock? Check. A boyfriend that wants nothing to do with the girlfriend or the pregnancy? Check. Cheating husband? Check. Even with the world crumbling around the characters, consequence always seems far away, like it’s bad, but not really bad to cause harm.
On top of that, Cuarón takes his sweet time getting to the inciting incident and fleshing out the subplots of the story. Everything else is filler, watching Cleo clean dog poop or stretch or walk from place to place or doing some other mundane act.
But, Cuarón doesn’t care about digging deeper into the nuances of character. He only wants to give the audience a gimmicky experience. This is the same problem with Gravity. The ride took greater precedence over the story. While Gravity was thrilling the first time, it doesn’t have the same effect in the second viewing. With Roma, the “experience” is not the thrill of survival, per se, but in living a mundane life. At times, several traumatic incidents take place, like earthquakes, fires, and riots, but they’re far removed and distant. They won’t hurt you, but they happened, and that’s all he wants you to know.
It’s monstrously absurd to watch a two-hour film and learn next to nothing about the main character, Cleo. She rarely has lines of dialogue. When she does, it’s small and inconsequential. Only tiny bits of information is given about her family and past. We don’t know her wants, her desires, or even her basic emotions. Most of the film she stands like a mannequin with little to no expressions. She clearly loves the family she’s with but at the same time is distant from them. She’s the most passive and boring character I think I’ve seen this entire year. At the end, we finally have a small glimpse of what she wants (or doesn’t want), but by then, it’s too late to care; the movie is over.
On top of not caring about the characters, Roma is woefully depressing. Things only go from bad to worse for all of them throughout the whole movie. By the time something good kind of happens; again, the movie is over. Even more infuriating, the “good thing” brings everything back to status quo and is like a small nugget of fool’s gold on top of a large, steaming pile of crap. Nothing changes. Nothing evolves. We’re left to believe things are looking up but it feels more forced than actually realized.
The hype machine will try to fool you into believing this film is worthy of all the praise. It’s not. It’s a two-hour long slog through a black-and-white Mexico City, following a family that you won’t care about at all. It checks off many Oscar bait boxes, and is visually impressive, but it’s not a good story and will bore you to tears.
Rating: 3/10
Photos courtesy of: Participant Media
