Who is who in that house? - "Girl in Progress"

 “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/