Pedro Almodovar is a cinematic magician. And yes folks, he’s done it again.
‘Talk to Her’ is a charming, heartfelt story about people bonding over the mutual effects of tragedy, which may sound like a tired theme for a movie, but when Almodúvar is in charge, it seems, nothing is ever tired, trite or unoriginal. All of his films have somehow revolved around lives marked by tragedy, but he isn’t interested in gathering his characters together for lengthy sob-fests. It’s as if he celebrates life through how these characters interact after the effects of their tragedies, placing them in slightly unorthodox situations that will enchant the eye, boggle the mind and elicit a lot more laughter than tears.
The film revolves around two men, the earnest Benigno (Javier Camera), and the grizzled, but no less tender Marco (Dario Grandinetti), who, after a chance meeting at a theater, meet at a recovery clinic where Benigno works. Marco is there because his bullfighter girlfriend Lydia has been gored in the ring and lies in a coma. Benigno can relate: the woman he loves, a ballet dancer named Alicia, is also in a coma, and he has cared for her ever since she was brought in. Through a series of scenes, meetings and exchanges that must be seen to be believed and can only be described as, well, Almodovarian, the two men bond over their respected tragedies and conflicted lives. Once again, the director’s power to construct a film that heals without being sappy, celebrates without being trite and moves without being weepy comes to the fore. It is a simple, delicate picture, one where plot is so far second to dialogue, framing and movement. Almodovar’s skill at creating atmosphere is also at an all time high: it’s as if he feels out what his audience needs to feel, see and experience in order to identify with his protagonists, and then provides those things.
No film in recent memory penetrates the mind with such subtle stylistic mastery. If Almodovar’s last filmthe equally captivating ‘All About My Mother’ (1999)was a stirring, wildly heartfelt portrait of the lives of women, ‘Talk to Her’ serves as its focused, refined masculine companion piece. There may not be another director in the world who so deftly and for that matter, comfortablyexplores the nature of tragedy and at the same time avoids both preachy, pretentious slush and feel-good goo. This is one of the year’s best films.
–Chad Berndtson, MUSE Staff
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