Cruz’s superb performance elevates this lovely if sometimes flawed drama about family, friendship and illness

There is such a lovely performance here from Penélope Cruz: rich, intelligent, generous – her best since Almodóvar’s Volver. Without Cruz, this movie might not have added up to as much. But with her vivid presence, it shimmers and throbs. Writer-director Julio Medem has created a very emotional drama; the word “weepie” does it a disservice, as it did to the movies of Douglas Sirk. Cruz plays Magda, an unemployed teacher and single mum to a bright teenage boy called Dani (Teo Planell). At the moment she discovers she has breast cancer, Magda forms a tender relationship with Arturo, a man dealing with a tragedy of his own: this is another of the film’s outstanding performances – that excellent Spanish actor, Luis Tosar. The movie further creates a kind of platonic love triangle,...