Leo Tolstoy’s famous opener – Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way – is fleshed out in director/cowriter Simón Bross’ brilliant debut film, the chronicle of an extended clan that hungers for meaning in a trying world.
Set in a rain-drenched Mexico City, this beautifully shot, heartrending story focuses on all the things we hate about ourselves. Yet Bross and co-writer Ernesto Anaya are loath to discriminate and explore seemingly every vice that consumes the modern world. The interconnected storylines, many focusing on food, unite the excellent cast in a web of abuse, adultery and anorexia. Pay particular attention to Ximena Ayala, who seems to have gone through an astonishing physical change to portray Matilde, an obsessed mother.
Bross shifts from the commercial world, where he is one of the most successful in Mexico, into feature films with an astounding but harrowing story that shows off his immense cinematic skills. Amid the lying, cheating and worse, BAD HABITS makes us realize that, despite how far afield that may take us, we are at the center of all of our problems. Can each of us change ourselves enough to make the whole world better, or will we be washed away by the pouring rain?
Downsides: this whole movie was so preoccupied with its characters' emotional fixation to eating (food was loaded with every single emotional problem), that there wasn't room for anything more. The pacing was odd. It felt like every scene was very short and about the same lenght. Also the nun character's religious shift at the last scene seemed unconvincing. A leap to her death would've been more logical.
