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Almodovar's TALK TO HER Reviewed By 6Degrees!!
Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
Interesting nick from our new Spanish spy. And a review of a movie that I’m itchin’ to see something fierce. Earlier this year, I was warned to keep my eye on this movie, which is going to evidently be a major contender for Sony Pictures Classics when the end of the year rolls around. Let’s see if our new reviewer agrees:
Dear Moriarty,
Let me first express my admiration for your reviews in this my first scoop.
As I hear so much buzz around Almodóvar's TALK TO HER I think you may be interested in having a first look at it from an Almodóvar fellow countryman. This film opened here in Spain some six or seven months ago and it got mixed reviews, but most of them positive. I am a fan of mostly all of his films but found this one a little bit disppointing. Why? As I'm spanish and therefore english not being my native language I'll try my best to make myself understood.
THE PLOT
The film revolves around these two couples dealing with loneliness, uncommunication and coma. Yes, coma. Meet Benigno, he is a shy yet talkative nurse in a hospital. He's devoted to take care of Alicia, this beautiful ballerina student suffering from irreversible comatose state. The hospital staff assumes he is gay (his manners and lack of girlfriend told them so) and he keeps spreading this rumor so no one suspects he's irresistibly attracted to his patient. Benigno thinks that her father, who is paying extra money to Benigno to take well care of Alicia, wouldn't hear of it. Benigno also confesses he is a virgin to add to the situation.
Meet Marco, a tormented writer who is visiting his girlfriend Lydia, a bullfighter (Yes, you hear well) who got in coma due to a bull attack in a "corrida". The stories of these two couples interwined throughtout the film.
In the most controverssial part of the film, Benigno, out of love does something (I won't spoil it for you here) that ultimately set the tragedy of this story.
THE GOOD
As in nearly all Almodóvar movies, the story gets very complicated to describe but while you're watching it onscreen it makes total sense. Here there are no transexuals, lesbian divas or nuns dying of AIDS (as in the
otherwise wonderful master work ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER). Instead we have a very simple yet original story dealing with Eros and Thanatos (that is Love and Death for those of you not familiar with greek mythology) and main of all lack of communication. That's the reason for its tittle: Benigno talks normally with Alicia although she is in coma, being sure she hears him and tells her stories about movies and all. He also advises Marco to talk to Lydia while she is "sleeping" but he can't.
The film is a kind of fairy tale with a twist. As the matter of fact, Almodóvar played with the idea of changing the tittle to something like "Sleeping Beauty II". The best part of the film, in my oppinion, and one every reviewer has mentioned as the highlight of the film, is a black and white short film we get to see and that funtions as a methafor of the scene, never shown and never shot of Benigno doing this terrible yet loving thing I told you about. The reason to cover it up: many people would find it unbearable to watch and blameworthy.
The short film is called "Shrinking Lover" and it's a parody of "The incredible shrinking man" only that this is a silent movie Benigno watches in the Spanish Filmotheque. In the film within the film a scientist (played by beautiful Paz Vega, whom you may remember from "Sex and Lucia") is developing a formula to make things shrink and his boyfriend (Fele MartÃnez, whom Alejandro Amenábar discovered in his early work "Thesis") drinks it to prove his love to her. Then he stars to shrink, obviously. Here Almodóvar uses many wonderful and funny tricks the likes of which Frizt Lang and Murnau used in their masterpieces, to make us see this process and when he is very, very little, he manages to make love to Paz Vega, in such a surprising, funny and almost ridiculous way, you will have to see by yourself to believe your eyes.
THE BAD
I think this story, as beautiful and poetic as it may seem, doesn't have enough fuel to make a long feature film, so Almodóvar fills it with the other story of the female "torero" and the writer. This one is so shallow that one keeps wondering if at the end it will gain relevance over the film.
It doesn't. No wonder he makes Marco be a hermetc writer, we are repeatedly told his difficulty to communicate throughout the film, so Almodóvar doesn't have to develop his character further. The same with Lydia. The fact she is a bullfighter makes no sense in the picture but photographs beautifully on screen and will serve as a tourist brochure for modern Spain (the scenes featuring a "corrida" created controversy during the shooting, having used live bulls in a real corrida for the film).
THE CAST
Benigno (which in spanish means "good at heart", and he certainly is despite his actions) is played by Javier Cámara, a loved and talented comic well known for a successful spanish sitcom. Leonor Waitling is underused as the comatose Alicia. This actress is so talented and beautiful it is a shame Almodóvar only used her for this static and speachless part. Dario Grandinetti, the argentianian actor, plays Marco, and Rosario Flores, a singer, from a well known familiy of flamenco artists in Spain, plays Lydia, mainly because Almodóvar thought she has the same face of Manolete (a late celebrated spanish torero).
Some last words: The film has some problems of pacing and rhythm. So many minor stories appearing to fill up the lack of content, and so many spanish celebrities showing up just to be in the new Almodóvar film. In France it is a box office success, but you know french, they even loved Maurice Chevalier.
I hope you've found my review interesting.
My warm regards.
6degreesThanks, man. You don’t need to worry about your English. It’s better than Harry’s, so we’re glad to have you. And please... keep me posted if you see anything else in Spain we might not know about yet. Also, keep your eyes peeled for Harry in your country. He’ll be there later this fall... god help you all.
"Moriarty" out.
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No-one else has yet replied, so I may as well. I saw it last Saturday night.
I suppose i agree in parts to what the reviewer said, but i didn't come away from the flick feeling at all disappointed. Maybe it's because the writer is Spanish and perhaps a bit more used to seeing more films that explore the medium's side as an art form, but to me, it was at least refreshing to see something more intelligent, thoughtful and engaging than so much of the crap Hollywood spews out these days.
If that sounds like damning with faint praise, it really isn't. Almodovar's is a great film that looks in particular at man's love for women, this time. Man's love being complex, passionate beyond what we are normally allowed to believe and potentially unlimited. Nevertheless, we can see where it can cross its natural boundaries. The title "Hable con ella" refers to this love and its boundaries as well. It's what Benigno the obsessive nurse tells to Marco about his (Marco's) relationship with Lydia. It's advice Benigno could do with sticking more literally to, as his love for the unsuspecting, comatose Alicia goes further than it should.
With this theme ("Talk to Her"), Almodovar assesses how how men deal differently with their affections. Marco is the quieter, brooding type, who keeps his emotions and feelings inside and is all too easily noble, letting others take his happiness without much of a fight. It shouldn't be mistaken for a lack of emotion; he is man perfectly capable of passion, in the final analysis.
Benigno is a man whose destiny has been taken and controlled and his emotions and personality been strained so hard that he loses control of his feelings, his love. His is a slightly cautionary tale of how far it goes when a man cannot fetter his inner drive, desire and passion.
The film's flaws lie, not with the "preposterousness" of the plot, as one or two critics have adjudged, but, as the reviewer here notes, the side role given to the Argentinian writer, Marco, and his love. His character is interesting and real (i found i could identify with him) but his story feels somewhat underexplored and underdeveloped, mainly because the burden of the story falls on Benigno. In that way, the film wants a little, but i can't say it ruined the film for me, or left me disappointed. Yes, Lydia's role as a bullfighter served little but to set up some beautifully shot scenes, but as a nicely distracting Almodovar touch, it can be forgiven.
With his typical sprinkling of humour throughout (including the wonderful "Amante Menguante"), the film is suported by some fine performances, a touching score and good photography, I'd recommend it to anyone. -
Like "Murmur of the Heart," this film (Which I saw yesterday) takes a topic that is creepy beyond all reason and tries to make it warm, fuzzy and poetic. I wasn't sure what Almodovar was trying to say. Are we supposed to believe Benigno DIDN'T do what he was accused of? And if he did, are we supposed to see it as a good thing? Considering what happens at the end, I thik that's what Almodovar wanted.
*Shivers*
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Yes, but is it as bad as **SPOILER** the rape scene played for laughs (yes!) in KIKA? I gotta hand it to him for tackling challenging and taboo subjects, but part of the risk in undertaking this stuff in the first place is that you fumble it and make something stupifyingly tasteless, i.e. KIKA. Ah well...
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Aug 26, 2002 8:17:40 PM CDT
I think the sequel should be called A Stroll In Her Parts and Hu
by chaffro
"It's like a sauna with a punchbag in here, brother."
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