‘Despite Everything’ | Netflix Film Review

Despite Everything fondly reminded me of the Australian Netflix series Sisters, which brought a story about a group of women who found out their father made hundreds of women pregnant and essentially became a story of the discovery of oneself. This Spanish Netflix film is a degree different; four sisters following on from their mother’s funeral learn that their father was sterile, and in their mum’s will, they learn that each one of them has a different father. It’s almost like the mother wanted to play a game from the grave as one last laugh.

The selling point of Despite Everything is the differences between each sister as they journey to different places, meeting dissimilar men, and hearing diverse stories of their mother’s sexual encounters. Their search for biological fathers is more about learning about their identity than having that nostalgic feeling of where the sperm came from. The Spanish Netflix film thrives off the sibling rivalry, but at the same time pertains to four women who they feel like they had a hole in their lives all along – and their mother’s death sparked this path.

Despite Everything is rather simplistic in style and for a film, is one of the shortest in terms of running time. It runs at 78 minutes, and in that time it fits in four engaging characters all requiring to learn about the meaning behind their personality. I don’t think the Spanish film suffers from a short window because the genre is a comedy, which makes the escalation of finding each father a part of the narrative threads.

Despite Everything is barely original, and if anything, it relies on seen-before stories that we’ve become accustomed to. The twist is glaringly apparent in the first few scenes, but that’s okay because the Netflix film does not need to be unique, the characters are the forefront of its appeal. And while I wouldn’t recommend Despite Everything immediately on your thumbnails list, I’d undoubtedly press play on it eventually. It’s a short feature after all.