| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Great Women's Film--Not a Chick Flick
by ruth (movies profile)
Apr 17, 2007
60
of
68 people found this review helpful
"Volver" (to return?) was simply a wonderful movie, although I'm not sure men will have the same strong positive response as I. The visuals -- the colors of the buildings, the settings, the characters and their clothes and makeup and Penelope Cruz (Raimunda) herself -- were spectacular.
This is a movie about the relationships -- both familial and by affinity -- that women form as they soldier through their lives, often struggling to carry on in a hard world where they are frequently profoundly betrayed by the feckless men in their lives. The movie presents a touching picture of the ferocity of maternal love and of the easy "I've got your back baby" dependabilty of female friendships.
Although "All About My Mother" remains my favorite Almodovar flick, this one is high on the list. It was not quite as effervescent, complex or funny as AAMM, but it was very good nonetheless.
It was fun to see Carmen Maura, who plays Irene, Raimunda's dead mother, 18 years after "Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown." Not the mistress anymore; rather a frumpy mother who comes back from the dead to clear up a few loose ends for her daughter, granddaughter and herself and pitches in for a couple of other miscellaneous and deserving women along the way. My movie friend said, accurately, that it gave her a flashback to "Keeping Mum."
Although the story was a bit predictable, that was an easy thing to forgive. |
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