Before they move to America with their mother for a new beginning, two sisters in Lima reconcile with their estranged father. This story of fathers and their offspring coming together again has been told over and over throughout the history of cinema it’s about redemption, love, forgiveness; that sort of thing. There was Scrapper by Charlotte Regan (a standout British film from 2023), Somewhere by Sofia Coppola (2010), Boyhood by Richard Linklater (2014) among countless others in recent memory alone. So it can’t be another one of those something else has to come from somewhere. Reynicke does an excellent job with the Peruvian conflict always sitting behind it all; a thorn which could rear its head at any moment during the narrative but never takes centre stage so well that we get this lovely relationship between a father and his daughters bubbling up from within.
Carlos (Gonzalo Molina), the girls’ dad, is quite something, and we get a sense of who he is right at the start. “I’m not really a taxi driver, you know,” as Carlos reveals his acting talents to someone who doesn’t care. Carlos lies compulsively; when challenged on his own failings it becomes a defence mechanism as well as improving his daughters’ opinion of their absent father. The girls in question are Aurora and Lucía (played by Luana Vega and Abril Gjurinovic respectively), who have mainly been raised by mother Elena (Jimena Lindo) and grandmother Abuela (Susi Sánchez). With tension rising in Lima due to the ongoing conflict Elena decides to take them three Stateside where her new job offers a fresh start far more comfortable than what is currently on offer. A few days before the big move Reinas starts turning its wheels as Carlos tries to reconnect with his girls before being separated once again.
The expectation of children who depend on their absent parents to pick up the slack is as old as time, and it makes for emotional storytelling in the movies. The yearning, the waiting, the ultimate feeling of being let down even the most naïve child becomes numb to this sensation over time; although even absent fathers have a tendency to come good in the end, and children have a knack for forgetting and forgiving. Carlos would be so much more unlikeable if not for Reynicke’s writing and Molina’s acting. There’s something tragically sad about this guy living off former glories and community legend, so when we do get those moments of joy on the beach or driving across sand dunes with his girls they feel very sweet and true indeed.
Sometimes Reinas is a little dim, and the people have no background. We don’t know about Carlos or Elena’s history together or what he’s been doing all these years; whether or not the conflict was something that affected them more than it showed it’s left up to interpretation. Maybe for some people, Reynicke is just trying to show how vulnerable everyone can be through this story. Carlos realizes he could lose his children and shuts down while the girls refuse to open themselves up to this ‘stranger’ so as not to get hurt again. Even Elena’s vulnerability shows when she worries her daughters will want to stay with their father once they make peace with him.
This movie creates a lot of mixed feelings. It’s light hearted in its theme, tone and genre, often being funny too but still doesn’t have enough complexity to become one of those great films about such things (like I mentioned before), however it does take care over things so that we get what its saying overall There is a definite desire here though on behalf of showing community life through the way people live around all these riots kicking off outside their doors everyday mainly because nobody would ever do that yet another reason why I love Reynicke who manages not only not falling into it but also creating this lovely little family drama instead.
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