"FRIDA"
Starring Salma Hayek, Alfred Molina. Directed by Julie Taymor.
Screening at Rialto, Bridgeway cinemas.
(R13/ explicit sex scenes and offensive language)

Since her death, the Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo has become something of an icon in both art and popular culture. She is probably most familiar by her self-portraits: mono-brow, severe gaze and psychological garlands, or in the photographs of her in a wheelchair next to her husband, the famously rotund Diego Rivera. In their time (early to mid 20^th century) it was Rivera who was the more renowned, painting huge murals of Mexican history clothed unashamedly head to foot in the rhetoric of socialism.
   The film itself pulls us seamlessly through the major events in Kahlo’s life: her bus crash, meeting and marrying Rivera, trip to New York, mother’s death, Diego’s infidelities and the decline of her own health, which is held mercifully free from sentiment.
   Right from the peacock in the opening shot, Taymor delivers a colourful screen experience; rich in food, costume, music, visions and not least the paintings themselves. By keeping the lens in tight throughout, she places the human landscape above all else, and a fidelity to biography which is the film’s major shortcoming: it is so inclusive and even paced that it starts to feel less like a journey than ticking off a list. A whirlwind, or simply a bit of breathing space would have added much.
   The second shortcoming, unfortunately, is the acting itself. Molina’s Rivera is a creature of convincing assuredness and charm, but Hayek as Frida somehow misses the mark. It is not that she is bad, just proficient at the expense of any real emotional weight. Perhaps it is her lack of vulnerability, or the mark of a screenplay that, while restrained, still clambers for certainty over doubt. There is a fresh cameo by Edward Norton, but Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky is barely credible (English in a Russian accent is not easy, granted, but is that a touch of Sean Connery I hear?). The paintings really do look great, but this film is otherwise more diverting than inspirational.
                      -- David Llewellin

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