Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti, Leonor Watling, Rosario Flores, Mariola Fuentes, Geraldine Chaplin

- Reviewed by Linda

Mention Pedro Almodóvar's 1999 Oscar-winning film All About My Mother to me, and it is just about all I can do to keep from bursting into tears, covering my face with my hands, and sobbing, "I love that movie SOOO much!" I've got the one-sheet Picasso-esque British movie poster from the film framed on my wall, I own the video (and plan to buy the DVD), and the film is on my Top Five movies EVER.

So, did I have a lot of expectations for Pedro's follow-up Talk to Her? Of course! How could I not?

Were my expectations met? Errr... mostly.

Meet male nurse Benigno (Javier Cámara), who tends full-time to Alicia, a beautiful young ballet dancer who has been in a coma for four years because of a car accident. Benigno lovingly washes her, feeds her, does her hair, and most importantly (in his eyes) chats with her as though she were a lively conversation partner.

Enter into the hospital Marco (Darío Grandinetti), whose bullfighter girlfriend Lydia (Rosario Flores) has just been admitted to the hosptial after being gored in a bullfight. Because of her horrible injuries, Lydia is in a coma as well, but Marco is at a loss of how to deal with her not-quite death. Benigno reaches out to this forlorn man with friendship and the best advice he can give the grieving lover, "Talk to her."

Thus begins a touching, and eventually kind of strange relationship between these two men.

Through very non-linear, and sometimes confusing storytelling, Almodóvar unfolds the full story of these two men and their loves with flashbacks, flashforwards, and all things in between. The women, in turn, become more full-bodied characters than simply bodies without souls lying in state. It is truly a strange love story. Even more strange when the story takes a twist that my movie-friend, for one, was unable to get past for the rest of the film. I won't divulge, of course, but keep in mind that the "romance" loses some of its soft-focus melancholy, and takes a turn for the... well... [self-censoring right here]

But despite my quibbles with the plot itself, and the rambling and sometimes confusing technique with which the past is revealed, Almodóvar still works his magic. For one, the movie looks fantastic (of course). Particularly memorable is a sequence showing, almost fetishistically, Lydia dressing in her matador's uniform for a bullfight. Also, there is a gorgeous soundtrack, including perhaps the most show-stopping scene in any film all year involving the use of a song. In a moonlight party scene, the world stops for Brazilian crooner Caetano Veloso singing "Cucurrucucú Paloma" live to a rapt gathering. Marco cries from the beauty of it, and you will too.

Talk to Her is a solid, if controversial, film about love. It has been a few days since I've seen it, and it still nags at me, with imagery from the film popping into my head unexpectedly. I have a sneaking feeling that the film will grow on me upon further viewings, but for now, All About My Mother reigns in my heart as Almodóvar's unequalled triumph.

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