Volver

As I've mentioned before, I like Pedro Almodovar. I like his quirkiness, his black sense of humour and his focus on the characters - to the point where the setting is irrelevant for the story. And this is still the case in Volver, his new flick with Penelope Cruz as the lead. I was a bit concerned about 20 minutes into it that it wasn't black enough. But he catches up. Basically its a study on the relationships between three generations of women in one family - their loves, lives and offspring. Whcih sounds a bit cliched, and I apologise for that, but it is a good summary. It starts with elderly women (and cruz) cleaning gravestones and complaining about the weird wind. We then meander slowly (as in all Almodovar) to a ghost story, some illict sex (any more detail would spoil things), a death, a restaurant and eventually redemption. I liked it. There's been some critics dissing it (see this weekend SSTimes for example), but I found it funny and pretty black. I think the audience who Suz and I watched it with didn't quite get it, as we were laughing at the humour and they were looking a bit shocked. Eh. Cruz is stunning, possibly a bit too pretty (!) but very good actor. Good thing Tom got rid of her and Nicole, both far better actors than him, the best thing you can say about Katie is that she's Tom's acting equal (and the worst thing about the sublime 'Thank you for smoking').

the usual riders about an Almodovar movies apply here, dont expect lots of action, expect lots of character driven story, and an undercurrent of black humour.

3.5-4 out of 5. depending on my mood.

B.