Ema (2019)

I was leant a copy of this Chilean film by a generous film community contact, i hadn't heard of it before and wasn't sure what to expect..

I really liked Ema, will certainly add it to my collection if I come across it. It was engrossing, well acted, colourful, sexy, with gorgeous elemental imagery. It looked great and really benefited from being in HD.

A gorgeous opening shot of traffic lights (Symbol of society and control) on fire peaked my interest immediately. We follow a destructive young woman trying to find her identity and her place in the world after a serious family issue. I found it interesting that for a long period of the film, it is interspersed with images of dancing (all of which were very impressive looking), then it evolves as the film goes on to show images of sex instead, clearly making comparisons between the two physical expressions.

The actual story is whispered, not shouted at the audience. It is exposed that the couple adopted a child who had some very questionable habits. Although we don't see any of it first hand, there is a strong suggestion that the parents were not ready for parenthood and didn't deal with it atall well. I cannot help but be reminded of The Omen/We need to talk about Kevin, not just because of the story similarities but also because there were moments which felt like strong horror inflections, albeit not horror-like in tone.

The scene at the end with the characters sat around, and she explains what she did, had echoes of the Psycho ending when everything is explained in simple terms. It didn't take anything away but i think it wasn't needed, the story and character motivation was made as clear as it should have been (assuming the audience was paying enough attention) just by seeing the family together. The only way it was important to include it would be to show that Ema actively wanted to explain her actions to everyone.