“Volver”
Director Pedro Almodóvar
Sony Pictures Classics
Halfway through the film “Volver” (“to
return”), Raimunda, the low-class mother played by
Penélope Cruz (“Blow”), sings a Flamenco rendition
of an old tango song.
The scene is not superfluous nor is it intended to showcase
Cruz’s latent musical powers (though it does). Rather, the
lyrics to the song are telltale of Raimunda’s distress. Two
lines in particular are especially revealing: “But the
fleeing traveler, sooner or later must come to a halt.”
Raimunda is always fleeing and always moving, determinedly
sprinting to accomplish one objective after another.
Occasionally she is forced to stop her frantic pace and reflect
a bit on her life, at which point she usually breaks down and
cries.
Yet despite all the crying and all the singing, the film is
never morose. It is to director Pedro Almodóvar’s
(“Talk to Her”) credit that “Volver”
succeeds in combining the melancholy with the absurdly comical.
For instance, during a murder scene early in the film, Raimunda
comes home one evening only to discover that her husband tried to
rape her daughter and that, in self-defense, her daughter committed
patricide. For some seconds, mother and daughter stare at each
other with tearful eyes.
Then the film switches gears from tragic to darkly comic, and in
the following scene we see Cruz nonchalantly wiping the blood with
tissue paper as if only a bug had been squashed.
Not to worry; this murder is hardly a spoiler. It merely sparks
the movement of the twisty and always entertaining plot ““
involving ghosts, freezers, rivers, film crews, terminal disease
and corny television shows, to start.
The plot succeeds greatly in part to a great cast, including
Carmen Maura (“Women on the Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown”) who returns to an Almodóvar film after a
17-year hiatus, Lola Dueñas of “The Sea Inside,”
Blanca Portillo, and, of course, Cruz, who delivers a fantastic
performance, switching from dry anger to sudden weeping with
ease.
Yohana Cobo, who plays Raimunda’s daughter, is the
cast’s weak link. When the camera turns to her, the film
turns dull.
When one should show nuance, she bores, and when one should
react, she, well, doesn’t.
Ultimately, the tonal shifts of the film are not always entirely
successful. Wondering whether to laugh or cry can be an
entertaining exercise, but as it lasts most of film, it is also
quite tiring and at times disconcerting. Still,
“Volver” is undoubtedly worth the effort.