‘Ma Ma’: Here’s your chance for a good cry with Penelope Cruz

Old-fashioned sentiment doesn’t always get a fair shake. Sometimes, you just want the comfort of a “Love Story” or a “Beaches,” the same way you reach for a cozy blanket and a bowl of ice cream.

The Spanish import “Ma Ma” may be gussied up in arthouse threads, but make no mistake: This is an old-school tearjerker, designed to get audiences sniffling in the dark. If it had been made in the ‘40s, it would have starred Bette Davis. Now we get Penelope Cruz, playing a woman who bravely battles cancer with a radiant smile.

We meet Magda (Cruz) as she’s getting her right breast examined by Julian (Asier Etxeandia), perhaps the world’s most handsome gynecologist. She noticed a lump a couple of months earlier but waited to have it checked out.

That wasn’t the right move, it seems. She learns she has stage three cancer, and a mastectomy is discussed. She talks about having her breast amputated. “The term ‘amputate’ usually refers to limbs,” Julian offers, illustrating the movie’s quirky sense of humor.

Still reeling from the news, she attends a soccer match in which her young son, Dani (Teo Planell), is playing. She makes a connection with Arturo (Luis Tosar), a talent scout for Real Madrid who is impressed with Dani’s skills. Then Arturo gets a phone call alerting him that his daughter has died in an automobile accident, and his wife is in critical condition.

Magda accompanies him to the hospital, then continues to visit him as she endures chemotherapy and radiation. Eventually, Arturo loses his wife, and he and Magda embark on a gentle, romantic relationship.

That’s essentially the first part of the film, which is divided in two by writer-director Julio Medem (“Sex and Lucia”). In the second half, a happy new family unit appears to be formed between Magda, Arturo and Dani, but there is more heartache on the horizon. Magda learns that she now has cancer in her left breast, and it appears incurable. She also discovers that she is pregnant, and she joyously awaits the birth of a daughter she plans to call Natasha.In terms of plot, the film is pitched at the level of a soap opera, but it doesn’t always go down that way. When things threaten to get too treacly, there is that off-the-wall humor and Medem’s fondness for oddball situations. For example, Julian, the gynecologist, sings songs by Nino Bravo and Camilo Sesto and sounds like Sergio Dalma. It should be unbelievably hokey, yet darned if you don’t wipe your eyes when he belts out “Vivir” to Magda, about the struggles of life.

Medem draws out wonderful performances from the cast. Cruz also produced the film, and you can see why she wanted to play Magda: She gets to be feisty, sexy and maternal, plus there are the big, dramatic moments one expects (yes, there is a scene in which she shaves her head). Cruz is expressive and honest, and she often can make you overlook the movie’s more melodramatic tendencies. She also is endearingly funny; a sequence in which she watches Real Madrid on TV while she’s home alone is both hilarious and poignant.

It’s not merely a one-woman show, though the film focuses on how Magda affects the men in her circle (she apparently has no women friends, sisters or a mom). Arturo is played with a warm sense of calm by the gifted Tosar (so good in the nightmarish “Sleep Tight”) and Etxeandia charms as the doctor. Even young Planell is good; a scene in which Magda discusses religion with her son is handled with a delicate grace.

Admittedly, the schmaltz piles on pretty thick, though Medem fights to keep it at bay. There are some off-putting CGI effects involving Magda’s beating heart, which are simply clumsy. Magda envisions a Siberian orphan when she pictures Natasha, and the sequences have a chilliness that probably wasn’t intended on the filmmaker’s part. He also has a fondness for editing tricks that are more intrusive than effective.Still, for all its missteps and machinations, the film mostly achieves its goals. In other words, have some Kleenex ready at the theater.

★★★

Oscilloscope presents a film written and directed by Julio Medem. In Spanish with English subtitles. Rated R (for nudity, language and brief sexual references). Running time: 102 minutes. Opens Friday at AMC River East.