Ariel (Lucia Bedoya) seems like your regular Venezuelan factory worker balancing both work and her relationships, which isn’t easy. She spends most of her free time visiting and caring for her mother (Maria Elena Duque). Dying of cancer, her mother wants her to live her life. Her mother even passes down dresses for her to wear for her boyfriend.
Early in the film, Ariel loses her virginity to her boyfriend, which is a physical ordeal for her. The only person she can rely on for advice is her mother, who tells her to go to her doctor. The doctor, however, gives her treatments that don’t work because there is something different about her body that regular home remedies can’t cure.
There have been many great films where scenes between its characters are key. And Yo Imposible promises that with its characters. But the dialogue here feels sparse and stifling, as if it’s waiting for a revelation that should have come scenes earlier. Things could go either way for Ariel, but her encounters with the other characters even feel slightly sadistic.
Scenes within the film also don’t establish some of Ariel’s minor relationships. That first sexual encounter borders on sexual assault and it doesn’t resolve the issue of her consent until a few scenes later. She also eventually develops a romance with a new female coworker, but it doesn’t know how to handle the third act fallout that that romance causes.
Another thing that the film centers on and mishandles is what Ariel knows or doesn’t know about herself. Her doctor eventually tells her that she’s intersex. Cue the cliche mirror shots which, to its credit, feels palatable because of Bedoya’s performance. Intersex representation in film is hard to come by. The people who are born that way deserve better.
- Release Date: 5/31/2019
