All About My Mother

Written by Red Williams

All About My Mother is interesting because it spends a great deal of time convincing the audience to despise a character, and then almost instantaneously changes their minds. From the beginning, viewers are taught to hate a transvestite named Lola, but when they finally meet him at the end of the film, he wins them over.

The first mention of Lola was by Agrado, who complained to Manuela that he robbed him and left town. The audience then learns from Sister Rosa that he recently went into rehab for his heroine addiction, but fled before finishing his treatment. Then, under the disguise of being a friend's story, Manuela tells of her past with Lola. We discover that she married Lola before he became a transvestite, and that he is the father of her deceased son. With the cards stacked heavily against Lola, viewers next learn that Rosa contracted the HIV virus from him. The audience loathes Lola for causing so much pain to the characters they have gotten to know and admire, but then they meet him. He attends the funeral of sister Rosa, who died from the HIV virus he gave her. He explains to Manuela that he is dying, and has come to see his child.

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