A Fantastic Woman

Lelio’s deployment of fantasy sequences further provides a mode of articulating her state of mind. We watch her physically soar on two occasions: the first battling a windstorm on her way home, her body arching upwards as if walking on air; the second at a nightclub late on in the film, when she floats in the air, leading a choreographed sequence in a magnificent gold and silver tinsel outfit.

Suffused with fantastical elements, dreamlike sequences and hallucinatory images, “A Fantastic Woman” stars Daniela Vega, a trans actress, and her performance roots the film in a kind of intimate verisimilitude. . . . Lelio approaches this material with sensitivity and empathy. There’s restraint in his style, eloquent as it is.

The film is dead simple in its visual execution, except for some symbolic flourishes that will either jar with you or make you feel there’s a mysterious resonance you can’t quite pinpoint… But it was the most accomplished mainstream film in competition at this year’s Berlinale, and as Marina, transgender performer Daniela Vega gave one of the most fascinating performances to be seen here, shifting moods… from shot to shot with mercurial fluidity. Fantástica, for sure.