Elisa and Marcela (2019)

A little slow in the beginning, but I'm very glad I stuck with it. This movie is a very realistic depiction of what queer women had to deal with, so get ready to shed a tear.

⋆⋆⋆⋆ // 4 STARS

Director: Isabel Coixet

Where to Watch: Netflix (I created a free 30 day trial)!

Google User Rating: 95% liked this movie!

"Four weeks, three days, nine hours have passed since the last time I could smell you, yet I feel you are so close to me in my thoughts that I could almost touch you. Everything reminds me of you." (Elisa Sánchez Loriga)

So this movie is actually based off of a true story! Go ahead and read about them if you have a minute, it's very interesting! The ending is very different than what actually happened, but it makes for a better story so who cares.

Also, this movie's in Spanish, so Spanish speakers, you're in luck! The rest of us will just have to deal with subtitles... so sad, so sad.

Quick Synopsis

The movie starts with Marcela trying to find her way to class (we're in this really gorgeous Spanish religious school, very Harry Potter-esque). Elisa, an upperclassman, approaches her because she's obviously lost and extremely wet from the rain. They share a tender moment

in the bathroom as Elisa dries Marcela off, and sends her to class. From this point on, they become pretty much inseparable, and frankly you don't actually see them with any other friends ever again, which is kind of a mood, but still kind of weird. Anyways, they start hanging out a bunch, and Marcela's dad (very stereotypical tyrannical dad, I actually really hate him because he reminds me of my dad sometimes... yikes) becomes suspicious of Elisa because she keeps coming over to their house due to "educational reasons", which isn't a great excuse because Marcela's dad doesn't really believe in women getting an education etc. Eitherway, they still hang out and get closer and closer, sharing their dreams and what not at the beach, and lo and behold, they reveal they don't want to get married to men! Surprise! More shots of them bonding, they obviously really like each other at this point, young love (nice), and they're are about to kiss in Marcela's room, but uh oh! Her dad comes home, so they have to make up an excuse, but it's not good enough for her dad, and Marcela is sent to a boarding school in Madrid. This scene is actually pretty sad.

Time jump! Three years later, after sending letters to each other constantly about their love and how much miss each other, Marcela meets Elisa at the school she's teaching at (they're

both teachers) and they share a tender moment. At this point, they move in together and are completely in love and having a great time, but eventually the townspeople become suspicious because of the whole homosexuality is a sin thing, and do some pretty terrible things, once again, very sad scene. So, the solution? Elisa's going to dress up as a male a pretend to be her cousin Mario so they can be together. Does it work? Do they get to live happily with Elisa pretending to be male? How far will the couple go to convince others that Elisa's male (spoiler: pretty far)? Wattchhhhh and find out!

Official Synopsis

So first off, this movie is in black and white, and again is in Spanish... because they're in Spain, so that makes sense. The actual movie itself is a very good movie to put it in simple terms, like I mentioned above, the beginning is a little slow. It's very nice of course to see them fall in love, but nothing too crazy is going on beside build up, reminds me of a good slow burn romance, but they're obviously enamored with each other from the beginning. The film is very emotional, it's really upsetting to see what they have to go through, and god damn it the actresses are so. good. They have great chemistry, and specifically Elisa just seems to be so in love with Marcela, it's amazing. The fashion isn't anything crazy, and the set is very beautiful at some points, but nothing to write home about. It really is the very strong plot and wonderful acting that carries this movie. Um, there is one thing that everyone was surprised about... the sex scenes? Like they showed a shot of one of them sucking on the other ones toes, but alright not too bad. But then we get a little weirder, and the girls... put a full fledged octopus on their bare chests when kissing? I'm not even

going to mention the milk or seaweed sex scene... They weren't that bad, but I still wonder why on Earth they were necessary... Other than that, the sex scenes were pretty well done, sensual and not overtly sexualized besides the octopus scene, it was nice though overall. There was one point in the movie where I felt my heart breaking, but then I got whiplash because it turns out what I thought was happening wasn't actually happening. Turns out, Marcela had to make an unimaginable decision to save her relationship with Elisa, and this is why the movie is so good. The emotions are so raw, the tears and flowing, it's a realistic film, what else can I say. It depicts the heavy decisions needed to save a relationship, what's more relatable than that. But this movie DOES have a happy ending, I'll say that, and a really good one at that. The relationship remained strong throughout all obstacles, and thank god for that. Did that actually happen in real life? Of course not, I believe one of them committed suicide (allegedly), but then the movie would be just another tragic lesbian movie, and no one wants that. By the way, that one star taken off just because of the slow beginning, you should put this movie on your must watch list, but... a tiny bit lower on the list.

** I included that picture of the random girl because she was meant to represent all the other young queer women Elisa and Marcela were inspiring, and I thought that was nice (their story was put in newspapers everywhere, and numerous women came to support them in a... certain place they were staying at. No spoilers!!).

Cast/Heartthrobs

The cast was excellent, as I talked about earlier, Natalia de Molina as Elisa was my absolute favorite. And I hate to say it, but Elisa dressed up as a man was hot. Way hotter than her a female. Does that mean I have a type, maybe, but hot Jesus, dream girl material. Her short hair combined with her beautiful and lively eyes and extremely emotional performance

makes me give her 6/5 stars. Absolutely stunning. Greta Fernádez was great too, for different reasons. She gave a highly emotional performance as well, it just aired more on the somber side, as it was her who had to move to Madrid, and it was her who had to make decisions that were certainly harder than Elisa's decision to "become" a man, but then again, Elisa did had to do some other pretty messed up shit too. Oh, I forgot to mention. Armpit hair! Whoo we love to see historically accurate portrayals of women! Also Marcela's large front teeth and Elisa's nose bump are another perfect, not so typical representation of female beauty, it's a breath of fresh air compared to the lovely beauty standards social media has led us to follow. May I also mention a certain character named Andrés... he's so hot. He looks like a sexier, Spanish Joel Osteen. Why was he so hot? I don't know, I'm obsessed with his hair though.