Frida
I get the feeling that Frida Kahlo would have liked the movie portraying her life, Frida, now available on DVD. Salma Hayek gives a memorable performance as the chronically pained, if not tragically disjointed, Mexican artist known to be married to the famed and irreparably womanizing Diego Rivera. Perhap not mentioned enough in the movie, she also achieved notable success as a painter in her own right.
The supporting cast, including Geoffrey Rush as Leon Trotsky, Alfred Molina (soon to play Dr. Octupus in Spider-man 2) as Rivera, and Ed Norton as Nelson Rockefeller all perform quite compatibly with each other.
The film itself paces along rhythmically throughout and serves in the end both as a twisted love story and a tale of life’s bittersweet torment. It has all of the elements of a passionate art biography, yet remains lighthearted enough to be enjoyed, despite the heavy burden of depicting one of the art world’s most internally pained female forces.
