Volver (6 out of 10)

Volver, the newest Pedro Almodovar movie, stars Penelope Cruz, and is about some Spanish women. Cruz and her sister, played by Lola Duenas, are just living their lives in the wake of their mothers' passing in a fire. Cruz gets involved in a bit of a crime, while the "ghost" of the mother returns to Duenas. I don't want to go into too many details at this time if you're planning on seeing it. But this review will get spoilery, so I'll let you know when.

I can tell you what I liked about the movie. The interplay between the sisters and the women of the neighborhood was great to watch. It seemed very natural. Also, at the beginning, the movie almost seemed to start getting Hitchcockian, and it was interesting for a while, but this didn't last long.

Penelope Cruz is amazing in this movie. I have seen her in a number of her English language movies and she is only so-so, but she shines in this movie.

Ok, now for the spoilers.


My biggest problem came with the plot. It just seemed so unrealistic at times, and mundane at others. For example, when the ghost of the mother returns, everyone believes it's a ghost. You can argue, come on, they didn't actually believe it was a ghost, but they kept saying that it was her ghost. However, she goes by no ghostly rules. She actually sleeps and eats, and everyone can see her, and she has no ghostly powers like flying through walls or anything. So she was definitely not a ghost. But the characters of the movie keep saying "She's a ghost." This killed the movie for me. If you know she's not a ghost, say so. Otherwise, you have me believing you honestly think she's a ghost. It killed the realism of this movie.

The plotline just moved along so humdrummingly (I don't know if that's a word). There was never any real revelations until the end, and even then, they just seemed forced. For example, it turns out Penelope Cruz's daughter is actually also her sister (conceived it with her father via rape). This is just said for no real reason, it was never an issue earlier in this movie, and it's pretty much forgotten afterwards.

Penelope Cruz also opens up a restaurant for a time to feed a film crew. This takes up a lot of time in the movie, and little happens.

So back to the ghost thing, since that really took me out of this movie. Dina has said that Lola Duenas didn't actually think she was a ghost, and I can somewhat believe this. Maybe I missed a subtitle that said that. But I was watching a great portion of the movie thinking to myself "Come On People, You don't honestly think she's a ghost do you?"

Even if I ignore that aspect completely, thinking maybe I didn't understand that part and that's my fault, I still was bored by the plot of the movie. There was nothing in the technical side of the movie that was stunning either. It was buoyed by strong performances, but otherwise, the fact that I'm a male and this movie is decidedly for and about females didn't help. This movie doesn't have me dying to see any more Almodovar movies either.