Sólo mía (2001)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Javier Balaguer

Writers:

Javier Balaguer (screenplay)
Álvaro García Mohedano (screenplay)

Release Date:

31 October 2001 (Spain)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A women meets a charming man and falls in love, they get married and start a family. As they age and have children, the man's becomes violent and abusive. |

Plot Keywords:

Physical Abuse | Spain | Marital Rape | Battered Woman | Tied Up

Awards:

2 wins & 9 nominations

Cast

Sergi López	...	Joaquín
Paz Vega	...	Angela
Elvira Mínguez	...	Andrea
Alberto Jiménez	...	Alejandro
María José Alfonso	...	Madre Ángela
Beatriz Bergamín	...	Cuñada Ángela
Asunción Balaguer	...	Tía Ángela
Ginés García Millán	...	Hermano Ángela
Blanca Portillo	...	Abogada
Luis Hostalot	...	Abogado
Borja Elgea	...	Ramón
Mario Martín
Myriam De Maeztu	...	Jueza
Arantxa de Juan		(as Arancha De Juan)
Yaiza Esteve

Also Known As:

Mine Alone (Hong Kong: English title)

Runtime:

Brazil:100 min

Country:

Spain

Language:

Spanish

Colour:

Colour

Certification:

Hong Kong:IIB | Spain:13

Company:

Star Line TV Productions S.L.

Highly explicit European social drama - difficult to accept in North America

Unfortunately this film, which predates `Te doy Mis Ojos' (qv), escaped my attention, such that I have only now come to see it, billed as the fare for the great `Night of Spanish Cinema' on the state-run RTVE last Sunday. My biggest grouse is that they tend to put these films on too late, conveniently forgetting that most people have to be up and about, fit and ready to go on Monday morning. Maybe this is the reason for Monday being the lowest productivity-output day of the week, as, logically, many people succumb to the inevitable `mondayitis', for which no multinational pharmaceutical company has as yet come up with a suitable medication. Long live `mondayitis, I say, just as long as RTVE can find enough films of sufficient import to keep people up and wading through excessively long publicity breaks. However, on several occasions recently, I have found myself getting to about half-way through a film, when the second break for commercials appears, and I just switch off and retire to bed so as to be fresh and invigorated for the next morning.

`Sólo mía' is another film about gender violence in the family. It adopts a totally different attitude to the subject matter when compared with Icíar Bollaín's film which is at once more subtle in its telling. `Sólo mía' shoves the nitty-gritty between your teeth so that you can choke on it: some of the scenes are too explicit, one might argue, and are numerously frequent; in `Te doy Mis Ojos' the hard subject matter is more carefully handled.

However, Paz Vega, who starred in `Lucía y el Sexo' (qv) the same year, put in a recommendable performance as the badly beaten and tortured young mother; Sergi López as her husband plays his part well, though at times seemed to overforcefully portray his performance, thus almost beggaring belief. It should be said that his rôle was very tricky, to say the least. I feel that Luis Tosar carried off his performance in `Te doy Mis Ojos' more convincingly, with better balancing between the extremes of tensions and feelings.

The rest of the cast form a good back-up to the leading couple.

This film also points an accusing finger at the legal system, in which hypocritical legalities and aloofness does little - or nothing - to help solve this horrifying situation so evident today in so many headlines in Spain today. Something has got to be done: more than 70 women were killed in `gender violence' in Spain in 2003.