Roma Review: 6 Ups & 2 Downs

Downs...

2. The Familiar Premise & Simplistic Script

Cuarón's script is certainly the weakest part of the movie, and though this sounds like a massive hurdle for a Best Picture prospect, it's simply that the director is clearly far more interested in telling his story visually than through extensive dialogue or incident.

The central premise follows the life of a live-in maid, Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio), as she works for a middle-class Mexican family in the early 1970s, and the resulting examinations of class and family aren't terribly unique.

You've basically seen the core emotional through-line here in countless prior films, so it falls to the performances, direction and visuals to elevate it above its familiarity (which they do incredibly successfully).

While at times the subtle approach makes the script seem underwritten, there are also occasional moments that feel a tad contrived, namely an unnecessary third-act revelation which requires a needless suspension of disbelief from the audience.

Thankfully the movie is such a stylistic feast and still so loaded with quiet feeling that it impressively manages to make gold out of its incredibly average script. In another director's hands, Roma likely would've been nowhere near as engaging.