“Girl in Progress”, directed by Patricia Riggen, seems to be an
entertaining story about an absent-minded mother and a teenage daughter who
assumes the role of the head of the family. However the longer the movie is
analysed, the more dramatic interpretation appears. The lonely, neglected girl
decides to take a shortcut in the way to adulthood. The mother is, however, too
busy with her work and relationship with a rich lover to notice the crisis in
her daughter’s life.
In this movie, just like in
“Real Women Have Curves” we can observe Latino family. However here the Latino
origin is not a key element of the interpretation. The mother, Altagracia(Eva
Mendes) changes her name to Grace and uses Spanish just to talk with her
daughter secretly, being not understood by others.
As a teenage mother Grace had never reached a proper education and is working
as a waitress in a restaurant and as a maid in her lover’s house. She continues
her education taking part at some courses at the night school, but is more
interested into developing her career and the relationship with a wealthy
married doctor. From the ironic presentation about Grace which Ansiedad(Cierra
Ramirez) takes in the classroom we find out that the mother used to have many
boyfriends in many different cities. Still in the pursuit of happiness, engaged
with different relationships and trying to achieve more than being just a
waitress, Grace does not notice that her daughter is tired of being both a
child and a head of the house at the same time. Looking after irresponsible mother
causes that Ansiedad seems to be older than she actually is. When her mother is
busy with fulfilling her dreams, the girl is occupied with different
responsibilities: she looks after the house, helps in the restaurant and
studies. She simply brings herself up.
The very powerful scene of
the movie presents Grace preparing herself for the date and Ansiedad cleaning
the house. When the mother comes back, she falls asleep immediately and it is
the daughter who takes her shoes off and turns off the light. The roles are
reversed.
That whole situation pushes
Ansiedad to skip her teenage years and become an adult for real, with all its
privileges. She wants to live by her own, far away from her mother. To achieve
that she makes up a plan how to grow up, a plan including both good and bad
things that, according to books and movies, are essential for that
metamorphosis. Living her own life Grace does not notice it almost to the very
end. She even does not notice that Ansiedad run away from home. However alarmed
by the daughter’s teacher she notices she was following in her mother’s
footsteps, replicating her mistakes with the same result: her daughter run away
like she did in the past.
An optimistic ending of the
movie heralds big changes in both mother’s and daughter’s lives. Ansiedad
stopped by her mother does not leave the home. Grace continues her education. Her
lover’s family has a new maid. Everyone is happy and every problem is solved. A
sweet American ending of an unusual story about mother-child relations.
Picture: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1817676/
