Review of A Fantastic Woman (2017) by Legitsalt — 12 Sep 2018

"A Fantastic Woman" is a character study that follows the tragic tale of Marina, a trans woman, as she faces prejudice and mistrust following the death of her significant other, who had recently been divorced from his wife.

The movie attempts to capture the struggles, trials, and tribulations that people of transgender suffer due to social stigmas and misconceived bias, and I would say it does a pretty great job at this.

All the while it illustrates Marina as she tries to come to terms with both herself and the death of her loved one, and attempting to integrate herself into her deceased's family. The police attempt to fault Marina for the sudden death of Mr Onetto, as not only did he die in an unusual manner, but also Marina is transgender.

As she does this, she struggles to be true to herself, as she is beaten and abused for what she is, a transgender woman in modern-day Spain. The relatives of Marina's lost one despise her for taking him from them, being that Marina is biologically a male, refusing to let her into the funeral of the man she had shared a reciprocating love with.

At the end of the movie, Marina finally achieves her aspirations of being a confident female pursuing a career in the Opera. Stylistically, the movie is good too, decent shot composition, and vibrant colours, although it's not much of a stand out in this category.

I really appreciated the casting of a transgender woman as the leader, as I felt like it added to the authenticity of her performance. I would definitely recommend this one, although by no means is it the greatest movie of the year, as technically it could have been better.