The title is a goofy pun, considering that this somber drama only rarely means to be funny. It refers, partly, to one lead character’s attempts to lost weight, by starvation and exercise, and equally obsessive efforts to combat her young daughter’s slight pudginess. Her husband, meanwhile, finds a sensuality in food and is repelled by her increasingly thinness. “Habits” also refers to those worn by nuns, one of whom seems to feel that she will halt the torrential rains flooding Mexico City by starving herself.
First-time director Simón Bross fills the screen with striking images of rain, of food, and of flesh. The pace is on the slow side, but it didn’t bother me. The attempts to cobble together all of these stories of food and obsession may be, pardon the second pun, half-baked, but the artistry somewhat conceals the artifice.
IMDB link
viewed 4/10/08; reviewed 4/11/08; screened at Philadelphia Film Festival
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