Ralph's Movie Reviews: VOLVER

Thursday, December 21, 2006

VOLVER

Drama
In Spanish with English subtitles

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Penélope Cruz: Raimunda, cleaning lady at the Madrid airport
Lola Dueñas: her younger sister Sole, a hairdresser
Yohana Cobo: Raimunda’s teenage daughter, Paula
Blanca Portillo: family friend and neighbour Agustina
Antonio de la Torre: Raimunda’s husband Paco
Chus Lampreave: Raimunda and Sole’s elderly Aunt Paula who lives in La Mancha
Carmen Maura: their mother Irene
María Isabel Díaz: Raimunda’s friend Regina, a prostitute

REVIEW
With so many women in the film (and hardly any men) you have to pay attention to the many characters and their relationship to one another. But it is worth the effort to see the fine performances and range of emotions by several.

Part murder mystery, part comedy, it is an entertaining show. However, it is too long, by about half an hour, as several tangents lead nowhere and only serve to drag it out a bit.

CLASSIFICATION

some sexual content and language.

P.S.
Volver: a Spanish verb meaning to turn, to return, to go back.
Mojito (pronounced mo-hee-tow): a rum cocktail served with mint and lime juice

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.