Two sisters living in Madrid learn from their aunt that their mother, killed years earlier in a fire has returned. - (Baker & Taylor)
Video Librarian Reviews
The title of Pedro Almodóvar's film means "coming back," which is appropriate for a movie about the return of a woman long presumed dead. A chick flick in the Almodóvarian sense (i.e., it mimics 1950s Hollywood tearjerkers and the male characters are mostly superfluous and often malevolent), Volver mingles disparate narrative elements—whimsy, light comedy, dark drama, suspense—in a wildly careening story served up with a typically vibrant color palette (especially the reds). The script revolves around two sisters—the vivacious married Raimunda (Oscar-nominee Penelope Cruz), and the single and frumpy Sole (Lola Dueñas)—whose lives are radically altered by two shocking events: Raimunda's daughter kills her lustful stepfather and Raimunda tries to conceal the body; and Sole believes that she's conjured up the ghost of their mother (Carmen Maura). Volver approaches the potentially heavyweight subject of bridging misunderstandings between mothers and daughters with a mixture of florid melodrama and pure farce, yet even though the director breaks no new ground, the film is still enjoyable overall. Recommended. (F. Swietek) Copyright Video Librarian Reviews 2007.