Wrinkles (Arrugas) (Ignacia Ferraras, 2011)
Imdb
Date Watched: 1/16/16
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: I remembered reading about it before the animation countdown and found it to stream on Amazon Prime
Rewatch: No
I don't recall who it was that had recommended this film in the time leading up to the Animation Countdown, but ever since reading that MoFo's write up on it, I've wanted to see this.
This is a bittersweet and beautiful tale of an elderly man named Emilio who is sent to live in an old folks home and of the friendships he forges while there. It deals with the subjects of love, abandonment, loss, loyalty, the desire for independence, and the harsh realities of old age and sickness. It casts a sad gaze on the way the elderly are abandoned and forgotten in today's society, but it's not really an indictment of the elderly care industry.
It's really a story about people in the last days of their life trying to hold onto their humanity. It shows their fear of the "upstairs" - the place where those who are too far gone are taken and forgotten. It's not physical death but the loss of their minds and of their identities that they dread. Among the residents, we see a wife, still possessed of her faculties, who has essentially given up her freedom to remain by the side of her husband, who has Alzheimer's and doesn't speak. We see a woman who wanders the halls in search of a phone, desperate to call her sons to pick her up because she's "all better now" - if only she could find the reception desk to make that call or remember why she's looking for it in the first place.
But there's plenty of humor here too - especially in the form of Miguel, Emilio's roommate, who spends his days conning the other residents out of their money little by little while boasting about how he's never needed anybody. He scolds the other residents for yearning for visits from their families or for clinging on to their past lives and to those they've loved, and yet he has a little secret that is revealed as the film draws to a conclusion.
On a more technical note, the style of the film is quite striking. Done in traditional 2D animation, the artwork is crisp and beautiful. It's not as highly detailed as some other animated films I've seen, but it does well to evoke the viewer's emotions.
This is a quiet and poignantly funny film that I highly recommend. I can't say that I would've voted for it had I seen it before the countdown, but I do think it's a shame that this missed the final cut.
+