No working male director loves the community of women more than Almodóvar, and Volver is his ode of love to women’s congress and fortitude. A delightful blend of melodrama and comedy, the film is the most luscious yet restrained example of the filmmaker’s recent work. Volver also returns Cruz to the Almodóvar fold, and the actress has never been more magnificent. Her performance is captivating – not only as we gaze at her glorious body (which is celebrated from every angle by Almodóvar’s camera) but as she emerges as a real person with money trouble, husband trouble, sister squabbles, parenting problems, and unresolved issues from her past. Although the film is realistic, Almodóvar’s touch of the absurd and the madcap infiltrates everything, and his candy-colored visual palette lends a brightness to what in other hands might have taken the form of a sordid tale.
Opened 01/12/07