Tarzani’s ‘Calle Málaga’ Delights Audiences Despite Hefty Dollop of Schmaltz

Pegging Maryam Tarzani’s “Calle Málaga” as “feel good” does the film something of a disservice even as it is, as a description, on the mark. The picture has racked up a number of awards based, not on the commendation of critics, but the enthusiasm of audiences. Movie-goers in Italy, Spain, Norway and Mill Valley, California — a city about a half-hour drive from San Francisco — gave Ms. Tarzani’s movie a collective thumbs up. How could they not? “Calle Málaga” is warm and endearing, a panegyric to the resiliency of the human spirit.Which isn’t to say that it altogether evades the cute or the corny, particularly as the film settles into the second act. “Calle Málaga” begins on an equivocal note with an idyll to a life lived well, but does so in recognition of the often problematic vagaries that attend to growing older. When a hint of schmaltz is subsequently transformed into a hefty dollop, the proceedings take a predictable turn in tone and plot. Sentiment isn’t a bad thing, but when it’s milked in obvious ways, things can get mawkish.The focus of “Calle Málaga” is Maria Angeles (Carmen Maura), a 79-year-old widower who has lived on her own for some 20 years. Her spacious apartment is worn but cozy, exhibiting a lifetime’s accumulation of paintings, photographs, plants, and tchotchkes. Though prone to melancholic reveries, Maria has found purpose and contentment in her daily ministrations, chief among them kibitzing with local shopkeepers. They’re a friendly bunch.Ms. Tarzani, who wrote the screenplay with producer Nabil Ayouch, places us in a quarter of Tangier that once served as a haven for Spanish nationals escaping the dictatorial regime of Francisco Franco. Taking inspiration from her own grandmother’s flight to Morocco, the director underlines how dispossession can lead to adaptation and, with that, a sense of belonging. Ms. Tarzani’s grandmother “could never have imagined leaving the city she adored — her city.”Just how true to life is the calle on which Maria lives? Memory tends to soften the contours of experience, and, from the evidence on hand, Ms. Tarzani isn’t resistant to nostalgia. Her Tangier may be a biographical marker, but it’s also a cinematic fiction. You may be reminded of the haimish village in Giuseppe Tornatore’s “Cinema Paradiso” (1988) or the good-hearted townsfolk roaming the byways of any number of Frank Capra movies. Virginie Surdej’s burnished, golden-hued cinematography reinforces the director’s romantic take on city life.Carmen Maura and Marta Etura in “Calle Málaga.” Via Strand ReleasingBut not everyone in this story has a heart that’s tender, particularly Maria’s daughter, Clara (a stern Marta Etura). Their relationship is tense: It’s been a minute since Clara has paid a visit, and it’s been ages since Maria has seen her grandchildren. Clara has made the trip from Madrid with news of a failing marriage, economic straits, and a solution to both of these problems: selling Maria’s home out from under her. The deed to the place was put in Clara’s name by a loving father. The apartment has since accrued in value. This plan doesn’t sit well with Maria, not at all. She begrudgingly capitulates to Clara’s will, sells her belongings to a surly antique dealer, and moves into an old folks home. The place is well-tended, well intentioned, and a bore. Maria might be an old lady, but she’s not one to suffer the slings and arrows of fate: Life is too rich to settle for less. She pulls the wool over the eyes of Clara in far-away Madrid, as well as her new caretakers, and returns to a now-empty home. Without much money, but with an excess of determination, Maria re-begins her old life — that is, until a buyer comes along.Whereupon “Calle Málaga” capitulates to the aforementioned feel-goodism in ways that do, yes, make us feel good about the tenacious old lady at its center. Still, it’s an effort in which we need to fudge our critical faculties more than seems advisable. Ms. Tarzani gets by in this venture on the gifts of its star, Ms. Maura. International audiences will likely know her best for the work she’s done with the director Pedro Almodóvar, and the actress brings gravity, sass and sorrow to the proceedings, holding the screen like a movie star ought to.How much of a drawback it might be that the film surrounding her is, at its best, likable, is up for the audience to decide. A lot of audiences have decided that it’s no drawback at all. “Calle Málaga” is an entertainment to be treated and enjoyed lightly.

Tarzani’s ‘Calle Málaga’ Delights Audiences Despite Hefty Dollop of Schmaltz

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