VOLVER

Director: Pedro Almodovar (All About My Mother, Talk to Her)
Starring: Penelope Cruz, Lola Duenas, Carmen Maura

If you're American, and you haven't had the good fortune to see All About My Mother, you probably think of Penelope Cruz as the worst kind of Hollywood actress. Or maybe you just think she's hot. Leaving her good looks aside, and mesmerizingly vapid role in Sahara, even her best American work has been pretty marginal. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Gothika, Vanilla Sky, All the Pretty Horses; there's not much notability in that list. But she keeps getting work. And rightly so, because she is talented. I'll admit she's beautiful too, really beatiful. So I'm sure that helps. But back to her talent. It's there. And in Volver we see it. We also see the greater talent that Pedro Almodovar possesses. Easily one of the best directors working today, Volver is one of his best films.

Volver, if my understanding of Spanish is correct, means "to return", or "to go back". This title is nominally what the film is about - about how the troubles of our forefathers (or foremothers) repeat themselves again and again through the generations. Even in the plot, we have a character returning from the grave. For my money, I think an additional summation of the movie was given by a random character who notes how bad trash TV is, but that she can't stop watching. The plot of this film is awash with Soap Opera absurdity, but we can't stop watching. In this case though, I don't think it's the trash aspect of the story that keeps our attention, but rather Almodovar's mastery of telling about the lives of women, and the unfufilled in society.

As with many of Almodavar's films, Volver again focuses on women. The men in this movie are absent in every way - emotionally, morally, and they're no more than referenced on the screen at all. I don't think any man in the movie has more than 5 minutes of screen time. The story follows Cruz as a young woman living in a lower class neighborhood of Madrid. She is struggling through some desperate times (albeit melodramitically so). She begins to find some success working together with the other desperate women in her life, including her lonely sister (Lola Duenas).

Eventually, through some fun little twists we see how the problems she is facing are not hers alone - that the same problems have been plaguing women down through the generations. She, and others on screen, confronts them the same way that the women before her have done, by caring for those who need to be cared for, and holding on to those that are close to them. Almodovar loves discussing women in his films. He's definitely more positive towards them than toward the prototypical Spanish masculine male. This film in many ways continues to sum up his feelings. The film is about desperate situations, but it remains almost upbeat through the struggles. There's humor, but also quite a lot of crying. Volver is undoubtedly one of the best films of 2006. It's possible Almodovar could get an Oscar nomination for the work, as well as Cruz.

Standouts: Almodovar in his writing and directing. Cruz was excellent in her role as a struggling mother.
Blowouts: Not much, it's quite a good film.

Grade: A-