Penélope Cruz’s memorable depictions of mothers have started to feel like a sub-genre in themselves, with highlights over the years including her roles in Volver, Parallel Mothers, Pain And Glory, Ma Ma (not to mention her pregnant nun in All About MyMother). Now, L’Immensità joins them as Cruz puts in another ravishingly entertaining performance playing a woman on the verge.

Featuring an expressive and unforgettable use of colour, this immaculately designed film from Italian director Emanuele Crialese (Respiro, Terraferma) combines style and substance as it plays out in 1970s Rome. Cruz is Clara, the mother in question, a trophy wife imprisoned by her miserable marriage to Vincenzo Amato’s cruel and faithless patriarch, Felice. Luana Giuliani impresses as the eldest of Clara’s three children, the gender-questioning Adriana. Born female, the 12-year-old has started to wear his hair short and introduce himself as Andrea, feeling so uncomfortable in his own skin and surroundings that he thinks of himself as an alien from another galaxy.

Seen through the eyes of her adoring and powerless-to-intervene offspring, the tragic Clara is held at something of a remove. She has clearly been diminished by domestic drudgery and oppression; however, we see poignant glimpses of the free-spirited woman she once was when she throws caution to the wind on a coastal trip, while love for her children forms the film’s heart and soul.

With her combination of impossible glamour and compellingly conveyed torment, the charismatic Cruz once again shows herself to be a screen siren in the mould of earlier icons such as Sophia Loren. L’Immensità satisfyingly blends stiff period style with a modern sensibility that’s sympathetic to Clara, and to Andrea’s even more difficult situation, with his dream of being able to embrace his true gender identity a devastating distance away. 

In cinemas from Friday 11 August.