Adriana Ugarte makes uncertainty convincing in Julieta, giving the younger half of a shared role a life of her own. It is thoughtful, affecting work from an actor whose reputation was built in Spanish television.
Fi1m perspective
In Julieta (2016), Adriana Ugarte plays a woman who has difficulty knowing how much blame to accept. She plays the younger Julieta Arcos, with Emma Suárez playing the older woman, but she does not behave as though her only job is to explain what comes afterwards. We like the independence of the performance. The younger Julieta matters while she is on screen, and the differences between the actresses make the passage of time felt.
Pedro Almodóvar’s film brought Ugarte international notice, but her substantial leading work had already been in Spanish television. La Señora (2008–2010) made her popular in Spain; playing Sira Quiroga in El tiempo entre costuras (2013) confirmed her standing. Sustaining a central character across a series is a different task from sharing one across a film, and that change is worth noticing here. Ugarte accepts that she need not supply everything we will know about Julieta.
The casting works because Almodóvar allows the two performances to remain distinct. Each actress suggests someone unable to settle the question of her own blame, without making that uncertainty feel like a puzzle we are expected to solve. We were moved by Suárez’s stillness: speaking about the past looks like an effort she can barely afford. Ugarte keeps the younger woman from becoming a collection of earlier mistakes, so that we care about her beyond what she explains.
The film’s restraint does sometimes frustrate us; its reluctance to explain people can leave the actors doing more than their share of the work. That is a reservation about a drama we recommend, and the performances are a large part of the reason. Her lead in Mirage (2018), alongside continuing television work in series including Hache, also gives us reason not to reduce Ugarte’s career to this collaboration. Start with Julieta, but do not expect either actress to tell us exactly whom to blame.
Biography
Adriana Ugarte is a Spanish actress. Born in Madrid on 17 January 1985, she made her screen debut in the 2001 short film Mala espina and appeared in early television series including Policías, en el corazón de la calle and Hospital Central.
She gained prominence through leading television roles in La Señora (2008) and El tiempo entre costuras (2013–2014). Ugarte played the younger version of the title character in Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta (2016) and has appeared in films such as Palm Trees in the Snow (2015), Combustion (2013), Mirage (2018) and Ferocious Wolf (2023).
