Volver
by Pedro Almodóvar
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DVD details
Actor: Blanca Portillo, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Penélope Cruz, Yohana CoboDirector: Pedro Almodóvar
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: José Luis Alcaine
Writer: Pedro Almodóvar
Editor: José Salcedo
Producer: Agustín Almodóvar
Producer: Esther García
Producer: Toni Novella
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
Published: 2007-04-01
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC
DVD Reviews of Volver
DVD Review: Penelope Cruz lifts an otherwise average effort from Almodovar
Summary: 3 Stars
Penelope Cruz delivers the performance of her career in Pedro Almodovar's "Volver." In her native Spanish language -where she doesn't stumble over every third line of dialogue - she morphs into Julia Roberts or Kate Winslet, actresses of wit, guile, aura and raffish charm. Cruz is smart, resourceful and smoldering.
That she's sexy and stuffed into tight blouses and short skirts is not the point. What she does in "Volver" is make her performance look effortless. She cuts a path for her character using many old school tricks of melodrama - facial expression, body language and comic timing - to pay a warm tribute to working women.
Cruz is in the moment, and it's fun to watch an actress own the screen like this. After years of tough and somewhat justified criticism of herworking America, Cruz finally steps up to the hype of being a modern Sophia Loren. And she should be proud of it.
Almodovar should be glad for it because "Volver" is not one his better films. It is a minor work compared to "All About My Mother" or "Talk to Her." It's still a mix of comedy and pathos, and the movie's look is that typical warm palette of colors Almodovar specializes in. But the story is thin and exploitative, and the director takes liberties and shortcuts, relying on one of those long, unsatisfactory speeches you usually find in action flicks.
Because it is a personal homage to the films of Almodovar's youth - European neo-realism that juxtaposed beauty with society's underbelly -the movie showcases Cruz in all sorts of random situations. Here's her character, Raimunda, as a cook. Here she is flirting with a man. Singing a song. Talking to friends. Mopping. Moving several fridges.
Raimunda holds a lot of odd jobs because she's married to a lazy sort named Paco (Antonio de la Torre), who's been looking a little too lovingly at their daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). Raimunda also has a sweet spinster sister named Soledad (Lola Duenas).
Both sisters live in Madrid, and they lost their parents in a village fire. The village seems to believe their mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), has returned as a ghost to take care of her dying sister. Then Soledad finds Irene in back of her station wagon. Soon, Irene is working for Soledad's home-based salon, and trying to avoid Raimunda.
There's a rift between Raimunda and her mother, and the dark source of it ties the whole movie together. "Volver" waits too long to reveal this secret and refuses to deal with the emotional consequences of it.
Let's be honest. An American director would be closely examined for mixing such loose, jaunty material with serious subject matter. It would be nice if life merrily continued in the face of such deep, intimate betrayal. It does not, and it probably should not.
Sure, "Volver" is a fantasy. Almodovar is extending his characters an inner peace the world would not. That's gracious of him, and it is his right as an artist, but the approach demands harder questions than most critics are willing to pose. Just because a director intends to be playful, is it OK to advocate vengeance? Is death a just punishment for adultery? Should we be comfortable with Irene, or mortified? If Raimunda, the "lost" child, forgives her mother, isn't that meant as a signal for the viewer to pardon Irene as well?
Almodovar hides his revelatory ace so long to deflect those questions and focus on appreciating the daily life of a Spanish working diva. Again, that's kind of him, but it's snide, too. Paula, Raimunda's daughter, is wrapped up in a whole mess of lies. Do we embrace Raimunda's treatment of her? Does rage forgive behavior?
Those questions are possibly too didactic and literal. Then again, Almodovar's work is character-driven, and if we're not supposed to think about them, what other entryway is there into the narrative? Plus, Almodovar's masterwork, "Talk To Her," is no less shocking but it's far more measured, relevant and thoughtful.
Maybe the decisions seem more acceptable, and the tone more allowable because Almodovar couches his story in a sunny paean to feminism. We accept, somewhat blindly, the random, unearned triumph of the female spirit. Consider when Soledad runs away from the voice of her ghostly mother only to face a courtyard of men. Almodovar shows their hard, unsmiling faces in close-up, and Soledad is frozen to her spot. She turns back toward her fear of the ghost. Better that, than any of those men.
It has nothing and everything to do with Cruz's performance. She is weakest in the scenes that should require the most emotional honesty, and she is best in the random scenes. She is the star here, and stars get a lot of mileage out of otherwise ordinary moments. "Volver" works when Cruz works it.
Description of Volver
VOLVER - DVD MovieSpanish for "Coming Back," Volver is a return to the all-female format of All About My Mother. Unlike Pedro Almodóvar's previous two pictures, the story revolves around a group of women in Madrid and his native La Mancha. (The cast received a collective best actress award at Cannes.) Raimunda (a zaftig Penélope Cruz) is the engine powering this heartfelt, yet humorous vehicle. When husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) is murdered, Raimunda makes like Mildred Pierce to deflect attention away from daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). After telling everyone the lout has left, she struggles to conceal his body. The other women in her life all have secrets of their own. Her sister, Sole (Lola Dueñas), for instance, has taken in their mother, Irene (a sprightly Carmen Maura). Since Irene perished in a fire, is this person a ghost or simply a woman who looks like her? Then there's their childhood friend, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), who is desperate to find out why her mother disappeared after the blaze. Was she responsible? Almodóvar deftly blends the ghost story with the murder mystery in his tribute to the Italian neo-realist films of the 1950s. The resilient Raimunda is a throwback to the earthy heroines of Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. The latter appears in Luchino Visconti's Bellissima, which shows up on Sole's television one night (thus confirming the link). If Almodóvar?s 16th feature lacks the emotional punch of the more audacious Talk to Her, it's less heavy-handed than Bad Education and Cruz is a revelation. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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