 
Back
Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle
Click Here to Buy
Movie Posters!
|
Volver
Volver is a
movie with lots of stuff happening, but you have to wonder how
it’s all
supposed to go together, or maybe it’s not, just like life
itself.
Penelope Cruz
stars as Raimunda – a woman with troubles.
Her mother, Irene (Carmen Maura), and father died in
a horrible fire
years ago, but Raimunda’s elderly Aunt claims Irene is living
with her and
taking care of her, which fuels plenty of rumors around their small
village
about Irene’s ghost walking among them.
The dear friend who looks after her Aunt, Agustina
(Blanca Portillo),
has come down with cancer, and desperately wants to find her missing
mother
before it’s too late. Raimunda’s
husband
has lost his job, and starts conducting himself in dangerous ways, and
her
sister, Sole (Lola Duenas) is just plain acting weird (Amazingly
enough, I have
only touched on about half of the plots and sub-plots in that
description).
Volver is a
movie that wildly alternates between funny, inspirational, whimsical,
dramatic,
darkly humorous and tear-jerking, and still somehow, writer/director
Pedro
Almodovar makes it all fit together.
The
audience is taken through this full range of emotions by a wonderfully
talented
cast led by the best performance Cruz has given in years, but I am not
convinced it is the Oscar-worthy turn some have been promoting it to be.
She is very
good, but I don’t see that one amazing, blow-you-away, steal
the show kind of
moment that wins an Oscar (and her ridiculously phony lip synching job
when
singing in one scene has to be held against her, I’m just
petty and nitpicky
like that). More
than any of the other
actors in the ensemble, Cruz has to deal with most of the extremely
different
tones and plot twists, and handles it all with ease, but the movie
itself seems
to go on and on with plot twists thrown in that extend the movie more
than make
it better.
Volver is a
solid movie, and one Almodovar fans will cherish.
3 Waffles
(Out
Of 4)
Volver is
rated R for
some sexual content and
language
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
| You
can support this site by shopping at AllPosters.com |
 |
|
