Volver

Early in Pedro Almodovar's film Volver, Penelope Cruz answers a knock on her door with a telltale splash of blood on her throat. She's helping her teenage daughter dispose of a nasty problem, namely the corpse of her husband, who was getting too frisky with the daughter. The concerned person at Cruz's daughter wonders about the blood. "Woman problems," she says.

Woman problems could have been an alternate title for this story, which is one part Hitchcock, one part Telemundo soap opera. Almodovar has always been fascinated with women, but in this tale the men are almost superfluous. Cruz's husband ends up in a meat locker, but nobody seems too concerned that he's not around anymore. Meanwhile, Cruz's mother, Carmen Maura, who perished in a fire, starts reappearing, and she's surprisingly tangible for a ghost.

Also typical of Almodovar, the emotions in this film careen like a runaway vehicle. Cruz is one of two sisters who live in Madrid, but grew up in a village full of superstition. The other is Sole, who is plainer and was closer to their mother. Cruz has become a ravishing, headstrong woman who always seems to be marching at just short of a run. When a neighboring restaurant closes in preparation for sale, she takes it over and starts catering for a film crew. The reappearance of her mother causes all sorts of problems for her, because there are family secrets buried as deep as Cruz's unfortunate husband.

I enjoyed this film, though I didn't find it as substantial as All About My Mother or Talk to Her. The colors are vibrant (at least in the city portions--the village scenes are appropriately drab), and it turns out that Spain has trash TV just as bad as the U.S. I think the real revelation here is Cruz, who I think has turned a corner from tabloid fodder into a fine leading actress.