Following Talk to Her and Bad Education, films that explored paradigms of masculinity, director Pedro Almodóvar has returned to the female world in his latest film, Volver. Almodóvar has once again demonstrated his genius in capturing a paradoxical world where tragedy and humor, life and death, hope and despair coexist.
The film opens in La Mancha, an anachronistic small town plagued by superstition. Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), a woman who exudes beauty and self-confidence, yet works as a janitor together with her sister, Sole (Loa Duenas), fight the winds to clean the gravestones of their parents who we are told died in a fire. Yet, the surety, or rather finality, of their deaths are quickly undermined in this small town where belief in ghosts is pervading.
Death, incest, murder, cancer, a ghost, and a dead body form the plot of the film. One would expect such proceedings to produce a film that is dark and sorrowful, yet Volver, rendered in illuminating colors, unfolds in a rather benign, often light-hearted manner.
The murder, and resulting dead body is that of Raimunda's husband Paco, who is found on their kitchen floor in a pile of blood and a knife in his stomach. The ghost is that of Raimunda and Sole's mother, Irene (Carmen Lampreave) who returns after four years after her supposed death in order to visit her daughters.
The plots develop in two separate locations, La Mancha and a poor neighborhood in Madrid, where Raimunda and her fourteen year old daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo) reside.
The two developments lead the viewer to initially assume that the film will progress as a
murder mystery and a piece of magical realism respectively. While Almodóvar appropriates these styles, he departs from these genres' conventions in a surprising and seemingly effortless manner. Almodóvar brilliantly and originally melds the real and fantastical in such a way that rather than the fantastical belonging to reality (as is the case with the magical realism a la Marquez or Borges) reality is fantastical itself. Yet, the plot, and life for that matter, is simultaneously simple in Volver, as Almodóvar departs from using intricate parallel plots or flashbacks, characteristics of his earlier films.
The inclusion of a nearly complete female cast is significant. The few men who are present are depicted as lecherous and unreliable, yet mainly they are irrelevant. The death of Paco elicits no intense emotions, though he is eventually given a meaningful burial. The irrelevance of men allows the film not to be a polemic against men, as it is instead interested in the concept of female togetherness and resolve. Furthermore, the plot itself is rendered irrelevant, as it is in the honesty of the emotions and relationships that creates such a real world despite all the apparent fantasticism.
Penelope Cruz delivers a captivating performance as a confident and charismatic single mother. Performed in her native language, Spanish, the film displays Cruz's acting abilities that seem devoid when in her English speaking roles. As the plot unfolds, Cruz correspondingly divulges the inner struggle of her character, in a powerful and untrite way. This superb character development is a product of writer, director, and actor working harmoniously together.
Loa Dueñas, too, captures the essence of her character; her pain and loneliness are powerfully conveyed in her sad, blank stare as if she is about to break into tears. Carmen Lampreave, who plays the supposedly dead mother of Raimunda and Sole who returns to them, also is excellently acted. A supposed ghost, who is simultaneously fragile and timid, Dueñas successfully alludes to the indistinctness and fluidity of life and the afterlife..
The pallete of the Volver is wonderful. Collaborating with Almodóvar for the fourth time, cinematogrpaher Jose Luis Alacaine lights the screen with bright hues that give lightheardedness and a sense of optimism to this rather dark film. The explosiveness of the colors also simultaneously serve as a source of tension for the film due their in their intensity as if at any moment anything will go array for Raimunda and the world that she occupies.
It is no wonder Volver has been successful at film festivals and award ceremonies across the world including its wins at the Cannes Film Festival in the categories of best actress and best screenplay Volver has also led to Penelope Cruz's recent Oscar nomination for best actress, and award the she sure deserves..
Personally, I do not consider this to be Almodóvar's best work, but for a director with such an impressive bibliography to say so is hardly an insult.
Surely, Volver with its existential explorations of mortality, love, and independence, coupled with its simplicity and unpretentiousness will be a positive addition to Almodóvar's canon. And will certainly be considered one of Penelope Cruz's finest performances, as even though she has potential decades to go, it is a performance that is so superb, that it will be difficult to surpass.
