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Parallel Mothers, the turbulent new movie from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar, marks the seventh time he and longtime muse Penélope Cruz have worked together, and the fifth she’s played a mother in one of their films. In their copper collaboration, she’s Janis, a successful commercial photographer of about 40 who, along with Ana (Milena Smit), a terrified teenager, makes up the title duo. The pair meets early on at a hospital, assigned as roommates and due to give birth any minute. Connecting over their pregnancies’ unexpectedness and the single-motherhood awaiting them, their bond is strong and immediate, deepened by their nearly-twinning birth times and their baby girls’ minor postpartum health hiccups. But once they leave the hospital, their closeness is inevitably faded by the forked circumstances of their lives, despite assurances of staying in touch.

Though varying in genre and ambition, Almodóvar’s movies are almost always densely plotted and likely to contain at least one plot twist. (Their generally shared aesthetic values — swirling, eye-popping colors that pop out even more because of Almodóvar’s fondness for soaring Old Hollywood-like musical cues — make them feel like they share a distinct cinematic universe, too.) So it shouldn’t be too surprising when instinctual guesses that these births will only generate more drama than mere health complications prove correct. 

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