Movie Review: Roma

THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS.

When life gives you lemons, you take the lemons and squeeze them to become the juiciest lemonade in the hot summer time. Roma indeed was the juiciest drink in the winter and given how the setting was, I would say the movie was a well-crafted story that brought much happiness to audience on such relatable scale.

Roma is a movie set in the turmoil period of Mexico of 1970s and a nostalgic letter to domestic life of most families regardless of who you are and where you are from. It is the celebration of life in times of crisis and happiness that makes the movie on a relatable note especially when the movie is viewed in a living room. I watched the movie with my family members and for the first time, most of us enjoyed such movie where the story brought some joy. As you know, I have always been the one among my family members who truly enjoyed movies and some genres or stories don’t seem to get along well with them.

However, Roma was different from the movies I tend to view. It started off with the scene where we see a domestic family’s helper washing the yard of the house (possibly from the poops left from the dog). We then start to be introduced to the house through scenes of living room, kitchen, outside drains of the house and to the family whom the helper is serving. She isn’t the only one helping the family but there are two more helpers who were as good as her in the domestic chores. As the movie progresses, we then see the story goes from a happy portrait to a sad period, a chaotic period – the helper was three to four months pregnant, the wife of the family trying to hold herself together to make sure life was going well especially for her children and of course, the protests and the events that bring some turbulence to the story settings.

We know, life can never be smooth. There will always be ups and downs in life and the only way to bring about is to keep carrying on with life, always being firm in choices and then being together as the remaining family, keeping the spirit is still the best thing on Earth. That was what came to me even when the movie progresses, and it end – the celebration of ups and downs which we know as life itself. Life still moves like how the tides turned in the waters. Life is about appreciation of things that happened in the present and learned through the past to bring about more positive change to the future, and that is why Roma is a celebration of humans regardless of circumstances.

Roma, if possible and only possible, is a consideration to movie industry that we should not look upon lightly. It should be recommended to your friends, your family and even to the world. Take the time off and watch this crisp black and white movie about celebration of life as we know. Roma is a wonderful movie and one of the best storytelling in intense, sentimental imageries I have ever seen.

Ratings: 8.5/10