"Volver" A return to Form.

 

Pedro Almodovar has crafted a brilliant surrealist vision of Spanish melodrama that sits with you days after watching this movie.  Volver means to “return” and there are many returns in this movie as it parallels many intersecting stories about women and their connecting lives with one another. Almodovar is no stranger to diving deep into the emotional landscape that is a woman’s mind, but here he quietly moves through a twisted tale of betrayal and old memories devised to trick us and entice us. The story takes place in old Spain where the towns are little yet filled with many generations of women who have out lived their husbands. In the center of this story is a mother named Raimunda, a beautiful voluptuous woman trying to keep a life together that seems to be going nowhere and everywhere at once. Raimunda’s parents died a few years ago and she has been looking after her aunt who for sometime now has been slipping away. She tells Raimunda that her mother visits her to bake pastry and look after her. Much of the village believes this to be true because a ghost is never at peace until everything is taken care of. Raimunda is grateful for a neighbor Augustina who looks after her aunt. Augustina is having many battles of her own as her mother disappeared with not even a note left behind. Raimunda lives in the city with her daughter and near her sister, the slightly flighty and always joyful Sole. When Raimunda’s aunt dies her sister Sole sees their mother alive and this story begins to breath life into a reality we are never sure is real.

Volver plays like an epic poem on a small scale, choosing to meander through many feelings about relationships and how they can plague our memories. It’s a beautiful piece of work and much of that has to go to leading lady Penelope Cruz who here is astonishing and remarkable. She throws her hair up and wears dark make-up and swivels her hips as she saunters down cobblestone streets. Penelope is confident without being untouchable, she is a real woman who looks like Sophia Lauren. Almodovar loves his actors and you can tell that Penelope has poured her heart into this movie. Volver is not all doom and gloom as you might believe, but it fills its story with vivid colors and hypnotic music that enriches the environment that these woman call home. The plot is incredibly too tough to decipher here, but I must say that when it comes to its crescendo that it wont disappoint you. This is a true return for Almodovar to his home of La Mancha where some of the movie was shot, but it is also a return to a small movie with an incredible emotional resonance.