Summary
Crehuet’s latest comedy challenges us to accept ourselves as the only way we can truly embrace others.
Mirror, Mirror is a Spanish comedy-drama by the Goya Award-winning director Marc Crehuet. His latest tackles issues of corporations marketing important thoughts and themes to members of the LGBTQ+ community. The film may leave some perplexed, considering the character that triggers embracing a change in marketing towards a world that is becoming increasingly non-binary is disturbed by their own sister’s gender dysphoria and transition.
Considering the Human Rights Watch (2021) reported on Spain’s rejection of a bill that would have been “a landmark legislative proposal that would have allowed legal gender recognition based on self-determination”, does this reflect Spain’s values? Not necessarily.
Mirror, Mirror follows four main characters who obsess over their inner thoughts and insecurities. It takes place in the same cosmetics company upon its 50th-year anniversary. You have the unique Álvaro (Santi Millan), raised to think he is special, but his job leaves him unfulfilled.
His assistant Paula (Natalia de Molina) posts social media videos, abandoning antiquated marketing methods to the more nonbinary population. Her sister, Cristina (Malena Alterio), is traditional, married with kids, and like Alvaro, she cannot wrap her head around corporations transitioning their business strategies as the new normal. Then you have Alberto (Carlos Areces). This sweet bastard just loves the vibrant, silky-smooth words and tones of Glenn Medeiros. It is his safe space, as he has deep-seated insecurities that you would picture most single, bald, and fat men of a certain age may have.
Crehuet’s script utilizes the storytelling tool of characters, from the main cast to minor roles, having their reflections speak the truth about how they are feeling, despite the face they put on for the public. It is a device that I was worried may grow old, but surprisingly works. You have some nice touches here, like Cristina viewing herself as a man. Paula struggles with her values clashing with her ambitions.
Even the loss of Alvero’s reflections when he does not know who he is anymore. The script has some genuine laughs and is an actor’s showcase, allowing them the freedom to show different sides and three-dimensional views of each character. The most entertaining turn is Areces’s Alberto. He goes from a loveable loser to an overconfident and even brutish man of action, which is undeniably entertaining. At the same time, Alterio gives the film’s most deeply felt turn.
Mirror, Mirror reflects a stubborn world’s continuous closemindedness. Those unwilling to change and even a younger generation’s values are being used for self-promotion purposes and not genuinely embracing change. You will see characters unshackling themselves from socialized norms, while others move into the corporate world, compromising their values, all while knowing they cannot change the system from the inside if they want to stay in the game. However, by the movie’s end, Crehuet’s final, amusing yet haunting scenes eloquently speak to how lost we all really are.
After all, if we cannot accept our true selves, how can we accept others?
Read More: Mirror, Mirror Ending Explained
