‘Volver’ is Almodovar’s triumph

REVIEW

By David Germain

updated 6:48 p.m. ET Oct. 31, 2006

On almost every level, Pedro Almodovar’s “Volver” proves you can go home again.

The title — “Volver,” or “Coming Back” — suits not only the writer-director’s rich, nuanced comic drama of women coping with past trauma through the strange resurrection of a dead mother, but also the journey of Almodovar and his actresses, led by Penelope Cruz.

Almodovar has come back to his boyhood roots in La Mancha, Spain, back to some actresses who were mainstays of his earlier successes, back to a story inhabited squarely by women after a couple of films (“Bad Education” and “Talk to Her”) focused on men.

Quick facts Starring: Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo Director: Pedro Almodovar Run time: 2 hours, 1 minute MPAA rating: R

For Cruz, it’s a wise return to Spain and her native tongue amid a fitful Hollywood career that has resulted in such unremarkable English-language films as “Sahara,” “Captain Corelli’s Mandolin” and “All the Pretty Horses.”

Rather than the pretty face and bland persona she’s been in Hollywood flicks, Cruz is remarkable in “Volver” — vigorous, volatile and voluptuous in arguably her finest performance ever (Cruz and Helen Mirren of “The Queen” could easily emerge as the front-runners for this year’s best-actress Academy Award).

Almodovar notes that the film deals with the culture of death in La Mancha, saying the deceased are vital, palpable beings in the world of the living.

“Volver” opens with a marvelous scene reflecting that fixation on the hereafter as dozens of women dust and scrub the graves of loved ones — while some find comfort tending their own future resting places.

Among them are sisters Raimunda (Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas), who are back from Madrid to their provincial hometown to visit their ailing aunt (Chus Lampreave) and tidy up the graves of their parents, killed in a fire.

Their aunt speaks of her sister Irene, Raimunda and Sole’s mother, as though she were still around, insisting her sibling looks after her. They think auntie’s just losing her mind, though the village is full of stories that Irene has returned from the dead.

Eventually, Irene (Carmen Maura) appears to Sole and later Raimunda’s teenage daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo). It all happens matter-of-factly, with Almodovar’s wonderful comic charm, as Irene becomes an eerie yet corporeal presence so grounded to earth that she has to stow away in a car to get from La Mancha to Madrid.

Almodovar weaves a tangle of dark stories around this central thread. Raimunda and Irene both harbor terrible secrets, and an old neighbor, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), desperately seeks to learn something about her own missing mother.

The troubles and tragedies in these women’s lives are dire, even appalling, yet it all becomes much lighter and hopeful under Almodovar’s playful lens. “Volver” is a sensual delight of color, music, hearty food and the director’s glorification of strong women.

Cruz, who co-starred in Almodovar’s “Live Flesh” and “All About My Mother,” here looks like a bombshell of Sofia Loren proportions, the camera constantly positioned to make the most of her bosom and low-cut blouses.

This may be the role of a lifetime for Cruz, who is a superb mix of fragility and fortitude. Cruz’s magnificent performance seamlessly ranges from maternal steeliness to childlike delicacy, and she looks rapturously beautiful no matter what mode she’s in.

Maura — who worked with Almodovar on half a dozen past films, most notably “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” — deftly mixes pathos, regret and humor in presenting a mother with a good deal of unfinished business among her kin.

Duenas, whose credits include “The Sea Inside,” is lovably hilarious as the sibling accustomed to being the wallflower beside her luminous sister, while Portillo’s sober Agustina brings a hard, sad gravitas that contrasts with the lightness and lunacy of Raimunda’s family.

“Volver” meanders a bit toward the end, particularly with a trash-TV talk-show sequence involving Agustina’s search for her mother, the scene sticking out awkwardly as the main story of Raimunda and her family is wrapping up.

Still, it’s a tiny flaw in an otherwise vibrant film that’s pure class, pure imagination and pure Almodovar.

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