Pedro Almodovar's new movie Volver is a beautiful picture of
female strength. Penelope Cruz leads as Raimunda, a woman with a teenage
daughter and a recently dead alcoholic husband on her hands. Her own mother
died a few years back, and now her mother's very solid ghost has returned to
live with Raimunda's sister Sole, who runs an illegal hair salon out of her
apartment.
Set in residential Madrid and in a small local town, the movie is
saturated in the Spanish culture and foreign subtleties-bright colors,
cobblestoned locations and the flowing language itself. The story reaches
into an appeal far deeper and international than the attractive though harsh
display of Spain. The lives of the women in the story seem realistic, even as
the plot unfolds to show a series of remarkable coincidences. The script
is perfectly written so that the mysteries that pull the story along appear
and are answered at the exact right moments, and the movie fits together in a
flawless way. The flow and direction of the story are so smooth and natural
one might not even notice its perfection.
The movie includes humor; the jokes are realistic, with perhaps
the exertion of one odd scene where Raimunda's character rejoins with her
long-forgotten singing talent, and Penelope Cruz lip-synchs to a voice that
is supposed to be her own. Although it is a bit tacky, it also gives charm
and seems almost like a little joke from the filmmakers.
On the whole, the movie balances the light, natural humor with life's
tragedies to produce an exquisite film, and I loved every minute of it.
|
