‘Volver’ is the latest film from famed Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar who provides us with another one of his warm, female-centered entertainments after his last two heavier films ‘Talk to Her’ and ‘Bad Education.’
Pedro Almodovar seems to be the quintessential director of women at this cinematic stage in time. Growing up gay in a small town in Franco’s Spain, one can easily get the sense that the female characters that fill his films have most likely surrounded him in life too – women that took him into their inner circle’s and allowed Almodovar to get a beat on their approach to life, their humanity. A key word to describe the bulk of Almodovar’s filmography in my opinion is humanity.
Regardless of how extreme the subject matter is, Almodovar always manages to tap into the humanity of any given character be it rapists, sexual predators, deviants, you name it. That ‘Volver’ contains some of these characters but doesn’t dwell on them makes this point, in relation to this film, less substantial but even for his more extreme films, there is a slight protective halo over the proceedings.
‘Volver’ is one of his more maternal pictures, a film for and about women. A film planned around the enormous strength and resilience of women and indeed their beauty. Only Almodovar can get away with numerous shots designed to highlight cleavage without any deviant subtext – the breasts are there because of their beauty as he seems to converse through his camera and who can argue?
A great role for Penelope Cruz is provided here coming at a crucial time when most of her talents were either hidden or wasted in Hollywood productions like ‘Gothika’ and ‘Sahara.’ While she seemed to get most of the attention with her Academy Award Best Actress nominated presence, ‘Volver’ also marks a nice reunion for Almodovar and the great Carmen Maura who supplied him with his some of his best characters in several films from the eighties including the notable ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.’
For viewers unfamiliar with Almodovar’s work, a reading of the synopsis could prove daunting as elements of a murder, a ghost story, familial disturbances, and even slices of small-town life all flow together in a emotionally compelling way but does so with a fairly informal means that might put off some viewers – and yet, this is one of his more conventional films.
The film starts off with a humorous scene that sets the tone of the film - A legion of women from the small pueblo La Mancha scrubbing over the gravestones of the deceased men about town as if cheery about the thought of their demise. The men in this film who are not dead or about to be dead are indeed delegated to menial roles, who needs ‘em?
One of these women is our heroine Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), who, like her sister Sole (Lola Duenas) has abandoned the small town of La Mancha for the capital city of Madrid. Here, she slogs through her day working at the Madrid airport while returning home to her young daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) and her deadbeat husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) who is content to sit on the couch watching soccer and requesting beers from whoever is closest to the fridge.
As Paco leers drunkenly over Paula, one gets the distinct impression that these leers have not been filmed for naught. As these troublesome domestic issues play out, we learn of the sisters’ mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), who had died in a fire along with their father several years back leaving unresolved familial issues along with Irene’s older, ailing sister Paula (Chus Lampreave) who still resides in La Mancha and is seemingly taken care of by neighbor and family friend Agustina (Blanca Portillo) who mysteriously lost her own mother in the aforementioned fire.
The plot moves forward as a result of two deaths with wildly differing tones. Raimunda returns home from work on a bus where she finds young Paula waiting on her with a decidedly frightened look. Discovering that young Paula defended herself against Paco’s sexual advances with a very slasher-like kitchen knife (predicted by an earlier scene where we see Raimunda washing the knife vigorously), Raimunda takes control quickly, telling her daughter that she will assume all responsibility while cleaning up the mess and disposing of his body in a freezer.
This scene plays out very Hitchcockian and silent. We also learn of the elderly Aunt Paula’s death in which Agustina lets loose that she might have had some help during Paula’s last days from Irene’s ghost where it doesn’t take long for Irene to show herself to Sole, who appropriately freaks out at first, and then slowly comes around as Irene demands to be let out of the trunk of Sole’s car. Played with a bit of farce, Sole welcomes her mother into her house and takes her in as a Russian assistant to her hairdressing which she operates out of her home. Whenever Raimunda visits, Irene takes to hiding under the bed.
Subplots and skeletons from the family closet pile up, some with little to no resolution, as the film plays out with scenes ranging from absurd to poignant. Thematically, the narrative comes to rest upon the relationship between Raimunda and her mother Irene who seems to be enjoying her casual afterlife with the expectation of resolving some long-gestating issues with her daughter where they were estranged for their final years.
The narrative sounds convoluted as told in a review, possibly even absurd, but as any Almodovar fan can tell you, he can easily handle the disparity between drama and comedy, poignancy with the ridiculous. Despite dealing with murder and the afterlife, the film is a gentle, mostly subdued piece of work with knowing performances from the entire cast.
Carmen Maura had the most difficult task in the film for an actor with her portrayal of the dead matriarch - A role that required a comedic awareness along with keeping the character credible. It was a potentially risky role and Maura ran with it. Supporting players from Duenas to the young Cobo keep the film grounded but there’s no doubt this is Cruz’s show.
Adopting a fake buttocks that gives her a bit of Sophia Loren swagger, and sporting heavy eyeliner, I was reminded of some of those great women in neorealist pictures like ‘Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.’ Playing the protective mother and the scorned daughter at once within a well-written role provides an extremely engaging character as she lets tears flow down her face from one scene to showing colossal strength in the next. A scene where Cruz sings a tearful ballad straight at the camera would prove out of place in a lesser film, not here though.
The film is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and is enhanced for widescreen televisions with a great video/audio transfer which heightens the fabulous lensing by Jose Luis Alcaine and the subtle score from Alberto Iglesias. Special Features include a commentary from Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz provided in Spanish with English subtitles.
A lot of good stuff from Almodovar here with biographical observations, Cruz, however, doesn’t have much to say. There is a standard 8-minute making of along with a group of interviews featuring Almodovar, Cruz and Carmen Maura. A nice 18-minute AFI tribute to Cruz where Kenneth Turan interviews her in a more relaxed atmosphere comes next and the disc is rounded out by a poster and photo gallery and a group of previews that include Luc Besson’s new film ‘Angel-A,’ the intriguing-looking ‘Across the Universe’ from Julie Taymor, Academy Award Foreign Film winner ‘The Lives of Others’ along with other SPC releases.
The film pretty much runs the gamut as far as reflecting the themes of Almodovar’s past work – a hint of broad comedy from ‘Women on the Verge…’ the melodrama of ‘the Flower of My Secret,’ a few thrills courtesy of ‘Matador’ along with the constant undercurrent of the empowered female which is pretty much constant throughout all of his films – all of these themes are present and gel pleasantly and ‘Volver’ makes another fine addition to the oeuvre of the greatest living director of women today.
Volver is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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