It is a series of daily events and problems that Mara, a young Roman woman, still has to move to the United States with her nine-year-old son, Dragus. Maybe it will be wrong outside the country where Mara is going through a series of bad meetings. The events with Mara, when she found herself in front of her problems in babysitting, and her meeting with the US immigration official, begin to deal with the police about her son as well as the issue of getting a loan with her husband, making Mara a real maze.
The acting is solid all around, with Manovici offering a dazzlingly nuanced performance mingling innocence, charisma and deer-in-the-headlights desperation.
"Lemonade" remains effective and agitating precisely where it needs to be, while the subtleties of Manovici's performance, clouding her ingenue-like appearance with flashes of hard-lived savvy, keep the drama on edge.
Uricaru's powerful film is one that should be seen by all, showcasing the idea that, though America is not quite the shining beacon that it once was, if there are still those that look out for each other, perhaps there is but a glimmer of hope.
Ioana Uricaru's Lemonade finds some of the Romanian spirit lost in translation, but makes for a striking first feature centered on the desperation of the immigrant experience.
Perhaps the most ingenious thing about Lemonade is the bittersweetness that defines it - and the relationship that [director Ioana] Uricaru establishes with the title. [Full review in Spanish]
Uricaru's over-egged and dramatically misfiring debut feature stretches credibility, and patience with its characters, to such a degree as to largely undo its potential.
