Movie Review: Volver

(andPOP) - Roger Ebert once said the biggest change in films over the last couple of decades is that studios used to make the prestige pictures, and indies were these tiny little shock or exploitation flicks. Nowadays the studios make the shock or exploitation flicks, and we rely on indies to remind us what the cinema is still capable of.

This thought went through my head sometime between leaving the theatre that showed "Stranger Than Fiction," and paying $4.25 again to see "Flushed Away." Don't get me wrong; they're great movies, but there's a definite sameness to films that have been through the studio food processor. Even if "Stranger Than Fiction" partly manages to avoid its formula (at least for the first half), and "Flushed Away" is an example of it done really well, both ultimately feel like old hat. I was left with sudden cravings for a story where the characters didn't resemble people I'd met before, where the plot didn't go exactly where I expected, and where the revelations were actually revealing. I needed, in short, an indie, or at least a foreign film, and "Volver" ("to return") fit the bill nicely.

"Volver" is the latest from Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar, whose films (his most famous on these shores are 2002's "Talk to Her" and 1999's "All About My Mother") I'm not familiar with, but if this movie's any indication, I'd better start seeking them out. It's built on one of those wonderfully creative but incredibly low-budget concepts that indie filmmakers wish they had more of: after their mother's funeral, a pair of daughters (Penelope Cruz and Lola Duenas) are visited by her ghost, who helps them sort a few simmering personal problems out.

This is brilliant partly because it leads to a great story, and partly because it's easy to have an actual actress (Carmen Maura, apparently an early muse of Almodovar's who's working with him for the first time in 17 years) interact with Cruz and Duenas and say she's dead; no extra expense is needed to infuse the movie with an element of the supernatural.

The protagonist, so to speak, is Cruz as the younger sister, Raimunda. Early in the film her husband loses his job, walks out, and she's left scrambling for the means to support herself and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Paula (the excellent Yohana Cobo).

Compounding Raimunda's frustration is that she's also lost her aunt and mother figure, Tia (Chus Lampreave). Raimunda didn't have a good relationship with her mother, and when she loses her husband, a rift of sorts is created between her and her daughter. Also, by not attending her aunt's funeral (because of the shock over her husband) her sister starts hating her. So a large part of the movie is Raimunda getting a job and healing her relationships with everyone.

But the movie is also about Sole, who runs an illegal salon out of her house so she doesn't have to pay extra rent and who, it's implied, went through a bad breakup herself two years ago (neither of these elements are explored in any detail, however). She is the first to be visited by her mother, and both characters get screentime equal to Raimunda's.

The film is also about the sisters' pot-smoking, cancer-stricken neighbour, Agustina (Blanca Portillo) whose mother has her own connection to the family and has been a source of strain on her daughter and her neighbours' family.

And so the wheels are in place for one of those movies where technically nothing happens. And like the best of those movies, "nothing" is really everything, and the plot is moved forward by forces both outside (a friend of Raimunda's heads off for a little while, leaving her in charge of his restaurant), and within as characters discover themselves. For me to reveal any more would spoil your enjoyment of the movie.

And it really is a wonderful movie. Almodovar's screenplay includes elements of comedy, tragedy, suspense, and mysticism. There's an understated ease to it all; you can tell everyone involved enjoyed being in and working on this movie, whether it's the audience's clapping during an impromptu musical performance or the palpable sadness when Maura's character delivers the film's most jawdropping revelation. Cruz has never given a more believable performance (Raimunda is a likable but extremely flawed character) or, it must be said, looked more beautiful.

To be fair, I love strong female protagonists. And one of my favourite types of movie is the type where nothing happens but everyone learns something. That said, provided you're willing to put up with subtitles and deliberate pacing, I have a hard time believing any viewer would not be charmed by "Volver."

4.5*/5*