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For Libertad (Ángela Molina), her now grown up son Mateo (Manel
Llunell) is her everything, especially since his father left them, so much
so that they still share a bed, she still bathes him and can't stand to be
separated from him even for a short while. She blames all of this on
Mateo's rather fragile constitution, but he finds it nothing short of
smothering. So time and again he tries to break free of his over-bearing
mother, but having been thus controlled all of his life has left him with
a severe case of agoraphobia. And then it's found out that he has brain
cancer, and a severe one at that - something his mother more than him has
problems to get to terms with ... What might sound in
description like a very serious, even depressing drama is in fact anything
but. Despite its very downbeat subject matter, La Piedad is a
pretty light-footed comedy - a comedy with its dark spots for sure, but
comedy still. The humour here ranges from the very subtle to the
intentionally camp - the latter also being mirrored in the film's
pink-centric production design -, but never crosses over to the purely
moronic, and at the same time shows lot of heart, also thanks to the very
engaging performances of the two leads. All this results in a rather
unusual movie, but a very worthwhile one still.
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