Ma Ma

In brief: Shortly after being left by her husband for a younger woman, former teacher and newly single mother Magda is diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. After trying her best to keep the disease quiet from her son, who doesn’t take the news of his mother’s illness well, she finds solace in the company of Arturo, a soccer scout for Real Madrid, who recently lost his wife and daughter. Magda forms a tender relationship with Arturo. She and Arturo become one another’s primary support as they undergo their separate ordeals, developing an attachment that deepens further when he becomes a widower. The movie further creates a kind of platonic love triangle, or care triangle, with Magda’s physician, Julián who has relationship issues of his own, and is himself brooding over whether to adopt a little girl from Siberia.
Ramblings: A real tear-jerker and probably sappy but I was glad to have seen this one. All the actors do a fine job although it was easy to see where the story was going near the end. No surprises there.