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FRIDA

What You Need To Know:

In FRIDA, a young Mexican girl in the 1930s is maimed in a horrible trolley accident. While bed-ridden, she teaches herself to paint. Her favorite subject is ladies-most of them with one long eyebrow like her own. Many of them have strange, mutilating piercings and bloody hearts connected to other women. Frida eventually walks again. She takes her work to the famous Communist, womanizing artist Alfred and demands an honest critique. He says her work is wonderful and the two get married. The couple has a number of adventures in Mexico and America. Frida’s physical condition worsens, while her acclaim as an artist increases. Her travels to Paris and Alfred’s womanizing ways keep the couple apart. Eventually, he asks for a divorce. Will Frida ever find the freedom and relief and life she craves?

FRIDA has outstanding cinematography, authentic sets and costumes, clever symbolism, and an intriguing escapism about it. However, the movie, unintentionally, also shows the darkness of spirit that comes by following the vain philosophies and relativism of a worldview and political system void of biblical absolutes. The overt sexual portrayals, including lesbian trysts, render the movie abhorrent for moral audiences.

Content:

(PaPa, Co, H, Ho, C, LL, VV, SSS, NNN, AA, DD, M) Strongly pagan, communist, bisexual worldview with homosexual ideology as well as portrayals of cultural Catholicism, but without relationship or transforming power of Jesus Christ and the embracing of communism and anarchy; foul language including approximately 18 – 20 profanities, mostly mild; moderate violence with shoot-outs, a trolley wreck that kills and maims, and violent artistic portrayals; strong sexual content, including explicit portrayals of heterosexual & lesbian sex; full female nudity; moderate to heavy portrayals of alcohol use/abuse; heavy smoking; and, betrayal, deceit, dishonoring of parents, rebelliousness, infidelity, hopelessness, despair.

More Detail:

FRIDA is a beautifully filmed, symbolic, expensive and star-studded period piece that rubs our noses in the political and immoral values of the extreme political left. The protagonist is Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek) a mono-browed, but otherwise beautiful Mexican girl living around 1930. Frida enjoys spying on the town’s master painter, Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). He is an overweight communist who makes passes at the nude whores who pose for him and has casual sex with them at lunchtime. Frida then runs home and copies what she has seen with her young school boyfriend, Allehandro. After the boyfriend successfully steals her virginity and escapes the house, Frida dresses as a boy to pose for an important family portrait.

One day, on a trip to the city, Frida is maimed in a horrible trolley accident. She must now wear a body cast and is told she will never walk again. To add insult to injury, Allehandro tells her he is moving to Europe.

Frida determines to walk again. While bed-ridden, she teaches herself to paint. Her favorite subject to paint is ladies; most of them with one long eyebrow, like her own. She portrays many of them with strange, mutilating piercings and bloody hearts connected to other women. Frida soon walks again, as she predicted. She takes her work to Alfred demanding an honest critique from the master. He tells her that her work is wonderful and the two become fast friends. On the same night that they promised each other to remain only friends, they have sex – Oops! They soon fall in love and Alfred proposes. He warns Frida that he is unable to be faithful, but he is certain to be loyal. Frida accepts the deal, and the two marry.

At a party, Frida dances a seductive dance with Tina Modotti (Ashley Judd) who toasts the newlyweds. Tina claims, however, that she doesn’t believe in marriage because it’s basically an outdated fundamentalist repression. She lauds them for being brave fools and everyone dances. Alfred’s ex-wife shows up and makes a scene, but Frida is un-swayed. She will be the woman to make Alfred settle down as a faithful husband.

As time passes and much bizarre artwork is completed, Alfred is asked to come to America to paint a mural celebrating “the worker” on a wall of the Rockefeller Center. When Alfred paints one of the characters to look like Stalin, he gets fired from the project and is forced to move back to Mexico.

Alfred soon asks Frida to provide asylum for prominent communist Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush) in her father’s home. She agrees. During the course of his visit, she falls for him, and the two have an affair. When Alfred finds out, he claims that his heart is broken. As Frida’s physical condition eventually worsens, her popularity as an artist increases. Both her travels to Paris and Alfred’s womanizing ways keep the couple apart for long periods of time. Alfred finally gets fed up and asks for a divorce.

As the story unfolds, several questions remain: Will Frida grant Alfred his divorce, or will her determined spirit find a way to make it all work out? Will her constant physical ailments and medical bills drag her off her mark as a popular artist? Will she ever find the freedom and life she so craves?

FRIDA has outstanding cinematography, authentic sets and costumes, clever symbolism, and that intriguing “take me away to distant places and times” feeling about it. The acting is superb. The story gives an interesting glimpse into a volatile time in history and politics: the period between the two world wars.

However, the movie also, unintentionally, shows the darkness of spirit that comes by following the vain philosophies and relativism of a worldview, or political system, void of biblical absolutes. The protagonist seems to adopt a spirit of perversion at an early age through watching the philandering ways of the same man she, ironically, later marries. Frida experiments with lesbianism throughout her life. Her artwork shows the despair of those with such confused polarization.

The communism this couple works so hard to preserve never becomes the great savior and bastion of freedom they hoped it would be. Instead, the artists’ tortured and confused lives seem to exhibit its bondage. Though they live in a Catholic community and participate in their rituals from time to time, the religion brings them no relationship with the Lord. They don’t allow it to have any transforming power in their lives.

The Psalms talk about our lives being a “handbreadth” and a “flower of the field, gone when the wind passes over it.” (Ps. 103) How pitiful and tragic it is to live and die as Frida and her husband did. Each lived their lives seeking out passion, perversion and politics as the answer to the lonely cry of their empty heart, never finding the truth. How the enemy has blinded eyes throughout the centuries to the deep satisfaction that comes from abiding in the heart of the One True God and enjoying an intimate relationship with Him forever.

Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.


Now more than ever we’re bombarded by darkness in media, movies, and TV. Movieguide® has fought back for almost 40 years, working within Hollywood to propel uplifting and positive content. We’re proud to say we’ve collaborated with some of the top industry players to influence and redeem entertainment for Jesus. Still, the most influential person in Hollywood is you. The viewer.

What you listen to, watch, and read has power. Movieguide® wants to give you the resources to empower the good and the beautiful. But we can’t do it alone. We need your support.

You can make a difference with as little as $7. It takes only a moment. If you can, consider supporting our ministry with a monthly gift. Thank you.

Movieguide® is a 501c3 and all donations are tax deductible.