Penélope Cruz gives arguably the best Oscar-nominated performance this year in director Pedro Almodóvar's "Parallel Mothers." She delivers a remarkably layered turn as Janis, a single photographer who becomes pregnant and shares a room in the maternity ward with Ana (Milena Smit), a teenager. As happy as Janis is to be a mother, Ana is unhappy. And yet a switched-at-birth plot complicates the strong bond that develops between these two very different women. Moreover, a subplot has Janis seeking the assistance of Arturo (Israel Elejalde), the father of her child, to help disinter a mass grave in her hometown that dates back to the Spanish Civi War.
What makes Cruz's work in "Parallel Mothers" so nuanced is how she shows Janis processing themes of guilt as secrets and lies threaten to upend each woman's life. The actress, who won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2009 for "Vicki Cristina Barcelona," and was previously nominated for "Volver" (2007) and "Nine" (2010), chatted with Salon about her work with Almodóvar, motherhood, and "Parallel Mothers."
