This is a very straight-forward film, yet I found it captivating. It could easily have slipt into clichés and caricatures, but the director's sensitive hand prevents that. I wonder, though, if men would appreciate it. As for women, I do believe hardly any will help feeling close to Norma - especially women her age. Watching her transformation from a well-dressed, high-heeled, just-out-of-the-hair-dresser but unhappy lady into a serene and more easy-going woman with hair flowing in the wind is soothing to me, and an inspiration. So I am happy I found this gem a film. And since I find myself going back to it again often, it wouldn't be fair to rate it less than 10 stars!

Story about a forty-something woman going through a mid-life crisis (sort of). The acting is great, the filming is great. There are glimpses of humor here and there. The film ambles at a slow pace, which is right for me maybe, but not for others.

Whenever the main character is focused on herself (which is most of the film) her life seems to stagnate -- manifested seemingly by insomnia, doldrums, listlessness... She discovers a way that she thinks will get her out of her funk. In the fleeting moments that involve reaching out in relationships, things seem to improve.

The film is set in Argentina, but it could be anywhere really.

Norma is a well to do woman in her sixties. As the movie opens, Rosita, her housekeeper of many years brusquely announces she is quitting for a batter job. Norma is taken aback and reminds Rosita that she was "part of the family" (a meme common among wealthy Argentinian families). Rosita reminds Norma that her participation in family festivities was only from the kitchen door. This seemingly trivial incident causes cracks in Norma secure, settled married life and prompts her to reexamine her family and her place in it.

There have been many recent movies on this subject, but Norma holds its own. There is no preaching or social theorizing and the approach is comedic, with many inside jokes. The scenario is the fictitious town of Las Tucas in Cordoba province (In Argentina, 'tuca" means the stub of a marihuana cigarette). Humor is at times subdued but effective, as in the snide observations about Norma's painting by her professor. At times humor becomes raucous as in Norma's misuse of her car. Characters such as the Sophisticated Buenos Aires Psychologist are deftly sculpted, avoiding clichés. Family relations involving Norma's husband, sister, mother and daughter are realistically portrayed and there is feeling and also humor here.

Director Santiago Giralt tells the tale tale smoothly, with excellent sense of continuity and timing supported by first rate cinematography by Guillermo Saposnik. The center of the movie is Norma, played by Mercedes Morán who also cowrote the script. She is in almost every scene and rises to the challenge brilliantly. Another inside joke; Norma is an anagram of Morán minus the accent, but it also means a standard pattern of social behavior in which Norma feels trapped.