‘Memories of My Father’ Somehow Aren’t Quite Enough

An easy going family dynamic is the movie’s pumping heart, yet at times one wonders when the proverbial shoe will drop. In the end, it seems the filmmakers should have focused more on the doctor at the center of the story.

Cohen Media Group
Nicolás Reyes and Javier Cámara in ‘Memories of My Father.’ Cohen Media Group

“Virtue is not photogenic,” the actor Kirk Douglas once said, and the great American director Billy Wilder, before his death in 2002, apparently repeated this quote to the Spanish director Fernando Trueba. “Memories of My Father,” Mr. Trueba’s latest movie, could be seen as a repudiation of this aphorism, with its focus on the life of Héctor Abad Gómez, a Colombian doctor who endeavored to improve the lives of the poor and to fight corruption in Medellín in the 1970s and ’80s. 

As seen through the eyes of his son, Héctor Abad Faciolince, who wrote the book on which the picture is based, the film is a loving tribute to a man who was as devoted to the Hippocratic Oath as to his family. Early on, we watch as the adolescent son (Nicolás Reyes) follows his father (the appealing Javier Cámara, recognizable from Almodóvar’s “Talk to Her”) from hospital wards and shanty towns to the doctor’s university office and all around the commodious family home. The movie doesn’t so much have a plot during this section as the lifeforce of vivid memory driving it forward, as scene after scene of a son’s remembrances of his father detail happy, formative years.

Filmed in sunlight-laden colorful hues, the first two-thirds of the film conveys an infectious bonhomie, despite a few somber moments showing the sorry state of public health in Colombia at the time. Dr. Abad’s happy home life consists of the following: five wonderful daughters in addition to little Héctor; a patient, working wife; an adorable, wheelchair-bound elderly relative; an amusing live-in nun (who assists with the children’s rearing and Catholic piety); and a couple of trusted maids. 

This easy going family dynamic is the movie’s pumping heart, yet at times one wonders when the proverbial shoe will drop. For though I basked in the glow that the characters emit in their shared love for each other, it seemed the mood was too bright and cheery considering the unstable political and social situation in the city beyond their home. Dr. Abad is even branded a Marxist when he publishes an article lamenting the government’s sanitation services.

Eventually, tragedy does strike during these halcyon days, though it has nothing to do with politics or Dr. Abad’s sometime alliance with student causes (that comes later). From this misfortune the movie segues to the 19080s and the viewer is now immersed in black-and-white cinematography, à la Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma,” another remembrance of things past. The problem, though, is that Mr. Trueba doesn’t have the same airtight hold on tone, pacing, and structure as Mr. Cuarón does, and so the movie suffers during this crucial third act. 

A pretty pointless sidebar in Italy that repeats a sequence at the very beginning of the movie, an argument between father and son, and an accident caused by recklessness are all treated haphazardly, with no character build-up establishing how Hector Jr. (now played by Juan Pablo Urrego) has changed as he’s become more of an adult.

When the senior Hector announces his candidacy for mayor of Medellín, the movie regains some of its footing as it advances toward another tragic event, with melodrama rearing its histrionic head only slightly. Still, in the end, one wishes that the filmmakers, including the director’s brother David Trueba as screenwriter, had focused more on Dr. Abad — his accomplishments, his failings, and the circumstances surrounding his death. A man as positive and filled with wisdom as he was deserves to be celebrated. Despite what some may believe, he makes for riveting fodder for the screen.

In addition to “Memories of My Father,” the Quad Cinema is showing other Fernando Trueba movies in a retrospective of his career so far. A humorous romp through pre-civil war Spain that won the “Best Foreign Language Film” Oscar in 1994, “Belle Epoque,” demonstrates how to balance slapstick, sex, and lite politics with charm to spare. Also, his “Chico and Rita,” nominated for the “Best Animated Feature” Oscar in 2012, is a jazzy delight. 


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