‘Beloved Tropic’ Review: Paulina García Shines in Tender Drama
variety.comStephen Saito “Being a mother won’t save you from anything,” Mechi (Paulina Garcia) confides in Ana Maria (Jenny Navarrete) in “Beloved Tropic” during a rare moment of clarity, turning attention away from her own health as she is slowly succumbing to dementia.
The two are brought together by the precarious immigration status of Ana Maria, Mechi’s pregant caregiver who requires a steady job to remain in Panama after leaving her home of Columbia three years prior.
The nurse thinks a child might help if the paperwork doesn’t come through. But in director Ana Endara’s compassionate drama, her characters find a safe haven where they least expect it.
A good old-fashioned tearjerker with some enlivening flourishes, like the orchids that peek out of the shrubbery in Mechi’s garden, “Beloved Tropic” opens with a relatively modest offer from Mechi’s daughter, Jimena (Juliette Roy), to Ana Maria: $140 a week for an eight-hour day job, with the added incentive that if it works out she’ll have her lawyers take care of her immigration situation.
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