On my quest to find something new on Netflix, I stumbled across a short dramedy about two siblings who embark on a motorcycle journey across Mexico. Pitipol Ybarra’s A Todas Partes (All the Places) was a heartwarming treat. While the screenplay lacked depth and was frustratingly predictable, the film was a light-hearted watch about a brother and sister who make each other better. 

Fernando (Mauricio Ochmann) and Gabriela (Ana Serradilla) just lost their father. The film jumps right in at his funeral, in which Fernando is late on account of a train. The siblings break out into a fight, hilariously close to their father’s ashes, and thus we are introduced to the duo we are to follow across Mexico. Upon entering his old childhood home, which Gabriela has been in all her life, Fernando is struck with all his happy memories with his late mother and sister. After a drunken game of ping-pong, the two discover their childhood project detailing a motorcycle journey across Mexico that includes strict rules and guidelines. In their drunken haze, the two leave in the middle of the night to complete a journey they promised to each other over twenty years prior. 

Throughout their journey, the two experience wild nights and funny missteps as they get to know each other repeatedly. We learn about both of their regrets, including Gabriela’s fear of not leaving their hometown and Fernando’s regret of leaving his entire family behind. In a heart-bursting climax, Fernando reveals he has a son, and Gabriela forces him to go find the now fifteen-year-old. They play soccer together, unknowingly to Fernado’s son, Ricardo (Juan Pablo Fuentes), and suddenly, their broken family is whole again. 

The entire narrative is very quick. The film is an hour and thirty-seven minutes, which proved to be too short for total character development. Fernando and Gabriela were meant to push each other and bring out deep, repressed thoughts, and they did. Only it was too quick. Everyone was too easily convinced to do the next big thing (like seeing one’s son for the first time ever). There was never a moment where I felt like something was going to go wrong. From the moment the film started, I knew exactly what would happen. There was no suspense and time for us to grieve or reflect with the characters. This may be the first time that I say a film could have been longer. We needed more time to reflect and break open each sibling’s shell to make the emotional punch at the end more of a punch and less than a friendly tap. 

Overall, the story is cute. Gabriela decides to travel in the end, and Fernando tries to become a part of his son’s life. They became better, braver people. The film offers a beautiful portrait of sibling love and rivalry. It’s a beautiful love story that lacks romance but makes up for it in deep, flawed love. The kind siblings have for each other. The kind that makes two people, together since birth, connected souls. 

Review Courtesy of Sara Ciplickas