Movie Review: 'Ema' From Director Pablo Larrain

Director Pablo Lorrain is stepping onto the world stage this awards season thanks to his biopic on Princess Diana titled, Spencer. And while star Kristen Stewart is getting most of the publicity for her reportedly uncanny performance as Princess Di, Pablo Larrain has me excited about his career and where he’s headed. Not just because I have heard great things about Spencer but rather because I have seen and been blown away by Lorrain’s remarkable 2019 feature, Ema, a shocking, provocative and exhilarating film.

Ema stars Mariana Di Girolamo in the title role of Ema, a dancer and school teacher in Chile. Ema and her choreographer husband, Gaston (Gael Garcia Bernal) have just given up their 7 year old son, Polo, for adoption after having only adopted him less than a year earlier. They claim to have many reasons why they did this but the main one appears to be that Polo was acting out in ever more disturbing ways.

The first images of Ema show a figure who might initially look like a firefighter until you realize that this person is not carrying a hose, but a flamethrower. In the distance, as the camera pulls back to reveal the fire starter, we see the striking image of a stop light in flames, the aftermath of our unknown firebug whom I believe to be young Polo. This incident comes on the heels of Polo having nearly burned down his family home and leaving his aunt disfigured in the fire.

What unfolds from there are a shocking series of recriminations between husband and wife, Ema and Gaston. Each accuses the other of being to blame for Polo’s actions and for giving up on the boy and sending him back into the adoption system, a decidedly difficult action given that the adoption agent had to lie to just get the couple the chance to adopt the boy. Now, Ema wants to get Polo back, or, at the very least, remain part of his life at any cost.

The dialogue between Ema and Gaston is wildly unpredictable and shocking. The things that these two characters say to each other are like daggers aimed directly for each others heart. The script practices radical honesty and challenges the viewer to keep watching as things go from awkward and uncomfortable to razor sharp and deeply cutting. It's powerful stuff and Ema, the movie, and the character, rarely let's up from there.

Using her connections at the adoption agency, Ema manages to track down the couple who has recently taken in Polo and she sets about involving herself in their lives. Paola Gianini plays Raquel, a lawyer that Ema approaches to help her secure a divorce from Gaston, even though she can’t afford to pay for such a service. Santiago Cabrera plays Anibal, a firefighter that Ema arranges to meet using the flamethrower mentioned earlier. It’s apparent that Polo may have gotten his admiration for fire from Ema who, herself, proves to be quite the firebug.

Where Ema goes from here is a story of sexual intrigue, transgression and thriller levels of anxiety inducing tension. Ema is not a movie for the faint of heart. Pablo Larrain directs Ema as if these characters weren’t allowed to lie to each other or spare their feelings. Everything must be said, and while duplicitousness is Ema’s strong suit, she still appears to plainly state what she’s doing at all times while using her many forms of manipulation to keep the full truth at bay.

At one point Ema tells one of the other characters in the movie “When you find out what I am doing and why, you will be horrified.” She’s not lying, what she’s doing in this and many other moments is, on a moralistic and human level, horrifying. And yet, she can tell the truth so seductively that it comes off like a come on, like an enticement. Ema is much like the many fires she causes with her flamethrower, beautiful and exciting and extraordinarily dangerous, too hot to the touch.

Larrain’s direction is stylish and alluring, as his leading lady. Mariana Di Girolamo is a star, a surefire siren of the screen. There is a moment in Ema where she is leading her dance troupe in a reggae-ton dance number where you cannot take your eyes off of her, she’s magnetic, she’s wildly charismatic and her sexual allure is off the charts. The fluidity and freedom of her sexuality is overpowering and it gives a charge to the movie that few other actresses could achieve.

Ema is available to stream now via the streaming app, Mubi. I cannot recommend it enough, especially as Spencer will be arriving during this 2021 Awards season.