TIFF '18 Film Review - The Good Girls

The 1982 Mexican debt crisis is the backdrop for Alejandra Marquez latest film The Good Girls (Las Ninas Bien) by good the meaning is posh. Upper class wealthy women who have help to raise their kids go from lavish birthday parties for their friends, children, and associates and spend the rest of their spare time at the country club playing tennis. The film opens with an extravagant birthday party for lead character Sofia (Ilse Salas) there is wine, glamours attire and great food at the spread laid out at the family estate. Sofia's husband Fernando (Flavio Medina)  is in finance arriving late to the event presenting her with a new car fitted with a bow. She is queen bee in her circle of well to do women a position that lasts until the financial climate of the times comes to the families front door.

Anna Paulina ( Paulina Gaitan) is next in line for the crown. Her background is not as pure but her husband is positioned well as the crisis intensifies plus she has the pull to invite Julio Iglesias Sofia's obsession to an event. As Sofia's kids learn more of their parents fate words like repossession and asking if they are now poor on the way from a pinata themed birthday party occupy their thoughts.

Ilse Salas commands the screen as Sofia. She is at the height of her powers at the outset of the film but as her financial status begins to crumble she struggles to keep up appearances as credit cards are declined and whispers grow amongst her peers. Her most dramatic move is  dash out of the residence to attend Anna's birthday party as repo men appear at her door to take away her car. Meanwhile husband Flavio Medina's Fernando soldiers along as if nothing has happened continuing with a shell game to hopeful keep one step ahead of the creditors. Paulina Gaitan holds up her part as Anna Pulina. She is the newest and youngest in the crew. She looks up to Sofia wanting to help her but all of her efforts are taken as an insult.

The Good Girls (La Ninas Bien) is a story about the Mexican debt crisis that leads to the Nationalization of the countries banks from the point of the wives and families of the men that benefited from the old system. Director Abella picked a different angle to approach drawing from Guadalupe Loaeza's short stories presenting events right down to a news report of the Nationalization as Sofia preps to go out for a party. Marquez Abella also employed clapping as an effect to emphasize certain events as they occur.  The poorer rural citizens would have no sympathy for these rich people but Abella's screenplay and the fine acting of the female leads build a bond with the audience that creates a vested interest in their fates.

*** 1/2 Out of 4. 

The Good Girls | Alejandra Marquez Abella | Mexico | 2018 |  93 minutes. 

Tags:1982, Debt Crisis, Mexico, Birthday Party, County Club, Tennis, Pinata,  Purse, Peso, Jose Lopez Portillo.