But… and here come the spoilers… How does an aged lady live for three and a half years hidden in a house without ever leaving it? How does a man disappear without anyone looking for him even if by mistake? Why does Penelope Cruz suddenly start working in the (closed) restaurant near her house, since she already had another job? After the believed-dead mother reappears, how come the first question to her is not “weren’t you dead?”, but rather is “So are you going to sleep in the guest room?”? And so on… I asked myself too many times “what is going on?” And I know that I must accept all this because the Almodovarian world is a set in an alternate reality, a bit like the Tarantinian world where you can carry a katana as your hand baggage on a plane. Because even if from the beginning we know that the birthplace of almost everyone in the film has the highest incidence in Spain of mental illness (because of the strong wind, they say), many things happen that make no sense at all. There are lots of imaginative shots to animate even the most trivial actions, such as cutting peppers in a kitchen or loading a fridge in a van (clearly, the director had a lot of fun with overhead shots).īut… yes, there is a “but”. Moreover, Almodóvar gives us beautiful shots, helped by a well done and colorful cinematography. This is definitely the most interesting part of the film. And then the film also shows us the weakest parts of our society: not only all the main protagonists are women (either old women or adolescents in difficult family contexts), but we follow precarious workers, immigrants without residence permits, prostitutes… The representation of the La Mancha village is amazing, with the widows taking care of the cemetery, the funeral attended by the whole community, apparently united but in reality with everyone ready to take advantage of the misfortunes of the others.
#Volver pedro almodovar summary movie#
In short, this movie touches upon several themes, Almodóvar clearly thought a lot about what he wanted to say with his work. And then there is the recurring theme of returning from the afterlife, with various dialogues on how the ghosts of loved ones can return to affect our lives. But it may also refer to returning to the key places of the lives of the protagonists: the small village of the Mancha left by the two sisters Cruz and Dueñas when they went to live in Madrid the cemetery where their parents are buried the river so dear to Cruz’ husband ( Antonio de la Torre, recently seen in the interesting Tarde para la ira, 2016, and in the unexciting Abracadabra, 2017). And the past comes back also in the form of lives that are repeated, with past violence re-emerging in the present to guide the actions of the new generations similarly to what happened to previous generations. Mainly, I think that it refers to the past that we can not escape from, a past that always comes back even if we try to escape it. In this film, this may be referred to a number of things. What’s in Volver? Volver means to return in Spanish.
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Did I like it? Let’s say that I was entertained thanks to the movie’s unstoppable rhythm from beginning to end, but I continue to have reservations about the Almodovarian world, which I am afraid it’s not really suited to my taste. This time I watched Volver ( 2006), another movie with an almost all-female cast where Penelope Cruz and Lola Dueñas stand out. When Irene appears to Sole, she explains that she has returned to set right her daughters' troubled lives and reveal shocking secrets that will impact everyone! Raimunda has "female troubles" of her own, least of which is a corpse in the freezer! Winner of numerous film festival and critics' awards, Volver is a hilarious tale of love, loss and forgiveness.And here I am with my second review of a film by Almodóvar after the one I wrote on All about my mother. Raimunda (Cruz) and her sister Sole lost their parents in a tragic fire years ago.or did they? Superstitious villagers claim that the girls' departed mother, Irene (Maura), has been seen wandering around their Aunt Paula's home. A luminous Penélope Cruz leads an ensemble of gifted actresses, including Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). From two-time Academy Award®-winner Pedro Almodóvar (2003, Best Original Screenplay, Talk to Her 2000, Best Foreign Language Film, All About My Mother) comes Volver, a comedic and compassionate tribute to women and their resilience in the face of life's most outrageous tribulations.