A Fantastic Woman is a 2017 Chilean drama about a transgender woman who faces scorn and hatred from the family of her boyfriend after he passes away.
A Fantastic Woman (Una Mujer Fantástica) focuses on Marina Vidal (Daniela Vega) A transgender woman who works days as a waitress and at night is a lounge singer. Her boyfriend Orlando (Francisco Reyes) and her are about to go on vacation, but the night before they leave, he suffers a fatal heart attack and dies. Feeling distraught that the man she has loved has passed away, she has to deal with his family and they want her to be far away from them as possible. His son wants her to move out of the apartment and his ex-wife wants her equally far away from the upcoming funeral. Although they try to act civil at first, their hatred of Marina shows its ugly head as the story progresses.
Not only does Marina have to deal with Orlando’s family. She also has to deal with a police investigation who suspects foul play as the cause of death. There is one heartbreaking scene where she is forced to strip naked in front of the cops to rule out her involvement. What took me back is that even though the detective plays it off that she has no prejudice against Marina, it’s clear that she is just as hateful as anyone in Orlando’s family. The only person who sticks up for her is Orlando’s brother Gabo (Luis Gnecco). Yet to be fair, he doesn’t really do much to help her against the other family members.
While watching this I became angry for Marina and wished that she fought back more than she did. There is a moment when she goes to the wake and I wanted her to say something, like that she loved Orlando and that their love was pure and honest. I wanted Gabo to stand up for her at that spot instead of waiting until she left. I know this movie was going for a much more realistic tone, but that kind of upset me, especially after everything else this poor woman has gone through.
Director Sebastian Lelio is one I have never heard of before this, but he has certainly made a name for himself with this picture. I am very interested to check out his other works, one of them being is a film called Disobedience starring Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz.
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Lelio has this brilliant way of having you see the perspectives of everyone in the story. Even though I hated Orlando’s family members for the way they treated Marina, they are not quite the monsters they become when you first meet them, although that opinion changes quickly after she is kidnapped and assaulted.
I have to give praise to Vega for her brave performance in this movie. Lelio could have hired a someone to act like a transgender and they would have been merely passable, but to have a person who actually has lived this way brings so much more dramatic weight to the role. There is never a moment when she breaks down and curses the world for the predicament she is in. She remains strong all throughout when most people would have snapped. I hope that more directors recognize this talent and cast her often.