originally posted by Howard Schumann

Volver

Directed by Pedro Almosovar (2006)

If you are up for fart jokes, implausible plots, and convoluted melodrama, Pedro Almodovar's latest film Volver might be for you. Volver is lively entertainment with attractive songs, blazingly rich colors, and highly credible performances, but it is mostly style without substance and its worldview is limited to an idealization of women as eternal towers of strength, and men who are irrelevant pests. The film stars Penelope Cruz as Raimunda, a cleaner at Madrid airport, whose posterior properties are artificially enhanced to appeal, I guess, to a wider range of horny viewers.

The family has more secrets than the de Winters of Manderley. Raimunda's mother Irene (Carmen Maura) was burned to death in a house fire along with her husband but now she's baaaack to tie up some loose ends, looking like the friendliest ghost this side of Caspar. Irene returns ostensibly to care for her elderly sister Tia Paula (Chus Lampreave) and their neighbor Augustina (Blanco Portillo) whose mother also disappeared the day of the fire, but also wants to square things with Raimunda and her sister Sole (Lola Duenas), a hairdresser. It is uncertain, however, whether Irene is a playful corpse or a very much living mother who simply deserted her family four years ago.

If the circumstances of her parents' death aren't dicey enough, there's more. Raimunda's ne'er do well husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) lusts for teenage daughter Paula (Yohana Cabo) who sticks the knife into him after he becomes overly friendly one afternoon. Raimunda, of course, does not report the incident to the police but says she'll take the blame and sticks hubby in the deep freeze while everyone just accepts the fact that he ran away for good (do not expect any investigation or justice, murders are quietly forgotten).

Paula doesn't seem to be too troubled when told that Paco wasn't her real father anyway so why stew about it? She begs her mother to tell her the truth about her real father but Mom makes up a lame story and Paula buys it. Paula is a lovely girl but her character is as undeveloped as a packet of rice sticks and she fades from the picture before it is half way through. Tangential subplots like Raimunda launching a restaurant business with a series of lunches to a movie crew, and Augustina dying of cancer going on a reality television talk show all come to nothing and, as the plot becomes more and more unfocused, it is hard to care about any of it. While avoiding the self-indulgent outrages of La Mala Education, Volver offers few truly engaging moments.

GRADE: C