The title in English means Returning.
So here's yet another critically aclaimed film from 2006 which I found to be massivley overrated. Returning has gaged an incredible 90% on the tomato meter (rising to 95% for the "cream of the crop" section), and has made many critic's ten best lists. I was not a fan of Almodovar going in (out of ignorance, not malice, as this his first film that I've seen), but I am far less motivated to seek out his other works now. If this is near his best, I'm not sure if I want to think about his worst.
Returning has such a convoluted plot that I am going to reveal more of it than I usually do. Skip to the folowing paragraph, however, if you don't want to know many of the film's unlikley twists and turns. The movie opens as Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) visits the grave of her mother (Carmen Maura). The following day, Raimunda returns home her job as a custodian and finds that her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) has killed her husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) in self defense after he tried to rape her. While disposing of the body, she also learns that her aunt (Chus Lampreave) had died of natural causes. Then her sister (Lola Duenas) is visted by the ghost of her mother. At the same time, family friend Agustina (Blanca Portillo) learns that she has terminal cancer, but could recieve life-saving treatment in Texas if she will appear on Jerry Springer-like TV show and reveal family secrets.
If you made it through that plot description, you can probably guess that I am going to say that the movie is overwraught and hard to beleive. Any of these plotlines might be an interesting movie unto itself, but melodramtic revolation piles on melodramatic revalation and by the time the ghost of the mother appears, you stop beleving in the film. And I don't know about you, but I didn't need the scene where Cruz, a very beautiful woman, urinates in the bathroom.
Speaking of Cruz, her performance is the best part of the movie and she displays far more depth here than she has any of her American work (not her fault, since her parts were mostly so one-deminsional that it would be hard for any actress to express themsevles). In fact, the entire cast is excellent (I particularly liked Cobo as the daughter), but on a movie that's too rediculous to be played as drama, shot by a director who is too blind to play it as comedy. I don't know if Almodovar actully thought this material would work or was having a joke on us, but it's not funny, and in fact, isn't much at all.
Volver (2006)