Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
One of the most enduring and seminal figures in post-Franco Spanish filmmaking, Pedro Almodovar has always been considered one of the greatest international filmmakers of the past 25 years. His offbeat, energetic, and provocative films with colorful textures made him standout among his peers in his native Spain and Europe. From comedies like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown to sex films like Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and High Heels. Almodovar also explored different genres in the elements of drama and family with films like Kika, The Flower of My Secret, Live Flesh, and All About My Mother. The success of Almodovar's film not only reached a wide international audience around the world but also became a cult figure to American film critics, moviegoers, actors, and filmmakers who often cited his work as profound and intriguing, particularly since most of his subjects were about women. In 2002, Almodovar decided to shift gears a bit to explore the relationships of straight men caring for the women they love who are both comatose due to tragedies in the film Talk to Her (Hable con Ella).
Written and directed by Almodovar, the film carries the offbeat tone of his earlier work while channeling the richness and textures of modern Spain. Easily categorized as a drama, Almodovar plays with structures with elements of flashbacks and ambiguous storylines about the film's central male characters. Along the way, Almodovar pays tribute to the age of Silent films while giving the film's moments and characters are linear to Almdovar's Oscar-award winning screenplay. With a cast that includes Javier Camara, Dario Grandinetti, Rosario Flores, Leonor Watling, and Geraldine Chaplin, Talk to Heris one of Pedro Almodovar's richest and mesmerizing films to date.
The film begins with two men, who don't know each other, sitting next to each other while watching a ballet, as they're both moved by the story and movement. One of the men is a male nurse named Benigno Martin (Javier Camara) who is taking care of a young, beautiful woman named Alicia (Leonor Watling) who has been in a coma for four years after an accident. He talks to her about the ballet he saw and the man who was next to him that was moved to tears about it. The other man is an Argentinean journalist named Marco Zuluaga (Dario Grandinetti), who is currently on assignment interviewing a female bullfighter named Lydia (Rosario Flores). He recalls the first time they met as he is falling for her and their attraction increases after he kills a snake in her house and months later; they're starting to wonder where things are going.
Marco admits, he is still having trouble getting over the breakup of an earlier relationship with a woman named Angela (Elena Ayana) and how the time he killed the snake for Lydia had brought back some memories. On the day of her wedding, he felt for the first time it was time for him to move on, as Lydia wanted to tell him something. They go to a city in Spain where Lydia is prepared to go in a bullfight, as she is talking to her sister (Ana Fernandez) and a gossipmonger named Nino de Valencia (Adolfo Fernandez). Lydia gets ready to fight a bull but all of a sudden, she gets attacked by the bull and has found herself in a coma.
Marco blames himself for her distraction as he is unsure what to do for her. He would go to his work but when he walks to find the doctor, he discovers Alicia and meets up with Benigno, who recognized him from the ballet. Marco then notices that Alicia is in a coma and how Benigno often talks to her while giving her a bath and massaging her body parts. Benigno tells Marco to talk to Lydia but Marco feels weird about it and doesn't. Days later, Marco and Benigno talk more as Benigno talks about how he met Alicia years ago when he was just looking at her across from his house where she was in a dance studio practicing with her teacher and surrogate mother Katerina Boliva (Geraldine Chaplin). Benigno at the time was studying to be a nurse as he was taking care of his sick mother. When his mother died, he decided to meet a therapist (Helio Pedregal), who is Alicia's father. Benigno used the meeting just to meet Alicia and stole her hairclip just to remind him of her. He also learned to appreciate more of her love for dancing and silent films.
Katerina would visit as she felt Benigno was doing a great job in taking care of her since he doesn't treat her like a vegetable or a dead person. Marco tries to communicate where after a month in the hospital; the two had Lydia and Alicia sit next to each other to see the Spanish countryside. One night during Benigno's day off, he went to see a strange silent film about a man who accidentally shrinks himself but is taken care of by the woman who loves him. He tells Alicia about it as his love for her increases. For Marco, his love for Lydia is failing as Nino decides to take care of her and told him the thing Lydia was supposed to tell him that day. Marco, feeling broken starts to cling on to Alicia more as Marcos one night told him that he wants to marry her as Marco feels he's become crazy.
Marcos leaves for an assignment trip as the lead doctor discovered that Alicia has been raped and is pregnant leaving Benigno to be the main suspect. Some in the staff didn't think so since they think he's gay including Alicia's father but others think it was him as he went to jail. Months later, Marcos learns what happens to Benigno and visits him and the same time, he received some news where one of them shocked him the most. Marcos suddenly feels tortured about what he had learned as Benigno is awaiting trial. Marcos is at a crossroads that would lead to tragedy.
The dramatic tone surrounding Talk to Her is extremely complex in its plot and characters. The genius of Almodovar's work is for the fact that he doesn't play things easy while not trying to bore anyone. This offbeat is the reason why his films are so appealing and in Talk to Her, it's no exception. The brilliance of the film is in its script as Almodovar brings flaws and human enlightenment to the characters while as a director, knows when to build up moments of suspense, comedy, and melodrama.
For that, he's a master at what he does and is one of the rare international filmmakers who consistently experiment with new ideas and rehashing old ideas to be refreshed. In the silent film sequence, Almodovar brings a sense of comedy and drama that plays well to the film without making it inconsistent or distracting. Here, he uses it as part of the story for Benigno to tell the comatose Alicia about it. It's by far an enriching story that got him a well-deserved Oscar win for his original screenplay and another nomination for Best Director.
The film's look is also exquisitely rich in its use of color and the world of Spain. Cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe brings a look that is breathtaking not just in the countryside of Spain but the look of the hospital by making it real and clean as well as the city of Madrid and the bullfighting scenes. Along with the art direction and production design by Antxon Gomez, the film is exquisitely ravishing; even in the ballet scenes with a lovely set decoration by Federico G. Cambero as it brings up life and emotions to the film and the response from its leading characters. Helping in the presentation is longtime editor Jose Salcedo whose tight cutting and perspective is masterfully crafted. Another lovely aspect of the film is the score by Alberto Iglesias who brings in traditional, Spanish flamenco-style music to the forefront as well as an orchestra that enlightens the film's richness and tone.
The film's cast is utilized to perfection with its small standout roles for its nurses and doctors to the families of the coma victims. Of the supporting cast, no one stood out more than Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of screen legend Charlie. Chaplin goes miles away from her usual role of an English woman to play a Spanish dance instructor with such grace and poise while being sympathetic to her student and Benigno's feelings towards her. Rosario Flores' performances as Lydia is spellbinding as a headstrong woman trying to prove herself in the chauvinistic sport of bullfighting while doing a great job playing a comatose victim. Leonor Watling is enchanting as Alicia where most of the time, she plays quietly in her comatose state while she's alive in the flashback scenes, she brings a sense of innocence to her character that is missed throughout.
In the roles of the two central male performances, Javier Camara and Dario Grandinetti are brilliant in their scenes together in the respective roles. Here, we see performances of straight men at their most vulnerable and torturous. Camara's performance is extremely complex as the audience is feeling he's mentally ill for his love for Alicia although he plays the role as if we'rethinking that but there's way more to that. In the end, you sympathize with his feelings and all he's really doing is taking care of the woman he loves. Grandinetti is the straighter arrow of the two bringing in a harrowing performance as Marco, a man who is guilty of his wrongdoings and love for Lydia and Alicia. Grandinetti doesn't make his character pathetic but you do feel with him in scenes of loneliness and love-lost. It's easily one of the best performances of 2002 along with Adam Sandler's role in Punch-Drunk Love, Adrien Brody in The Pianist, Jack Nicholson in About Schmidt, and Dennis Quaid in Far from Heaven.
***Updated DVD Tidbits 10/4/06***
The Region 1 DVD of Hable con Ella presents the film 2:35:1 aspect ratio in the widescreen format in high-definition along with 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound in Spanish & French along with subtitles and trailers to films from Sony Classics. The DVD also includes weblinks to the film's official website and Almodovar's own official site. The only real special feature is a commentary track from Almodovar and Geraldine Chaplin which is done in Spanish but includes subtitles. Almodovar, sporting a sore throat, discusses the themes while admitting that he's not a technical director as Chaplin recalls the film's premiere in Paris where everyone was emotionally overwhelmed as she and Jeanne Moreau got into a discussion. Overall, it's a fine DVD from the masterful Almodovar.
***End of DVD Tidbits***
Talk to Her is a lush, complex masterpiece from Pedro Almodovar with great performances from Geraldine Chaplin, Rosario Flores, Leonor Watling, Javier Camara, and Dario Grandinetti. Fans of his films will no doubt, find this to be another classic while newer fans will definitely be interested in this and look for his earlier work. Talk to Her is a film that transcends the boundaries of foreign films and it's kind of insulting to call it foreign. Really it's a film that has wide appeal regardless of language and country. It's really an international film people can relate to and the credit really goes to Pedro Almodovar for finding new ways to enlighten an audience. In the end, Talk to Her is a rich, emotional masterpiece from one of Spain's greatest filmmakers.
Following the success of his 1999 film ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER Spanish director Pedro Almodvar presents TALK TO HER. Driven by similar themes of fate dest...More at Family Video
From Pedro Almod var, the director of the Academy-Award winning All About My Mother (Best Foreign Language Film, 2000), comes his most acclaimed film ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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