Ema (Mariana Di Girolamo) and her husband Gaston (Gael Garcia Bernal) gets some real talk from Marcela (Catalina Saavedra). Marcela is a social worker, only knowing this couple because they adopt a Chilean Indigenous son, Polo (Cristián Suárez). And of course, after they adopt Polo, the latter develops violent behaviour and they give him back. Marcela tells them “the system is made to cut out people like you,” despite her efforts to save them. Thus, this leads the couple, mostly Ema, to do the legwork in building back their broken relationship and their family. Part of the work involves keeping a friendly face with the dance troupe where they have positions that evolve. Another involves her doing something unconventional to to get Polo back from his adoptive parents (Paola Giannini, Santiago Cabrera).

The unconventional thing that Ema does, by the way, is cheat on Gaston with Anibal (Cabrera) and Raquel (Gianini). One thing of note is that she is younger than these other three characters, which personally triggers the age gap discourse. I may end up discussing the film’s flaws later, but how it treats their age gaps isn’t a flaw. Ema doesn’t infantilise its titular character (in most aspects), but neither does it treat her as some femme fatale. At first, it feels ridiculous that she gets to somehow bad both Animal and Raquel without them knowing it. Di Girolamo, and thus, Ema’s appeal, isn’t apparent the first time she appears on screen like some what actresses are. But there’s a genuine air to her while she’s around Anibal and Raquel and that should count for something.

Ema feels like a blender of vibes, a hangout film despite it being about a woman dancing to reggaeton. There’s also a lot of male gaze via sad white woman vibes, which is what Larrain brings to cinema. This blender effect brings me to my only real note against the film – it takes time to establish itself. There are too many films of the last decade that feel like collections of scenes with a plot pending. Can I forgive a film for having a messy opening 80 minutes if it ties everything together in the last 25? Apparently yes, and it can happen in a story that puts personal drama in front of a larger political one. It may feel blindly optimistic to say that lax, millennial rebellion works, but it successfully argues that Ema’s does.

Ema, a drama from director Pablo Larrain about a young dancer losing her adopted child, comes soon on OVID.