Review of To Return (1982) by William M — 11 Jul 2011

Although this movie was in Spanish, they did have English subtitles so at least I was able to follow along alright. And although this movie did have its comedic parts, there were dark underlying themes in this film I'd say. And as for the main actress of Penelope Cruz, she played a very strong character I'd say, and she did it quite well too. And as she was always a lovely woman, she even sang in one scene and that was kind of cool I thought. Now only if it was in English for me to understand and enjoy it, oh well. It still sounded good as she has a good singing voice I think.

As for the story itself, the movie starts off in a cemetery where the women and local widows are cleaning off their gravestones in a wind storm. It is something the local women do, they say. Not long after that when Penelope Cruz's character Raimunda and her daughter arrive at home, they find her husband who was fired again. The next day or two after that when Raimunda returns home, she sees her daughter at the bus stop waiting for her, and when she goes home, she finds her husband dead from a stab wound that her daughter did since her husband tried to rape the daughter. He was saying to her how he was not her father.

So from this, Raimunda has to get rid of the body to protect her daughter and family from this event. Her and her daughter put the body in a freezer in a closed down restaurant that is next door to where they live as Raimunda was given the keys to it to keep an eye out for the owner, and to let prospective owners take a look at it while he was out of town. And on top of all of this, there is another plot of the "ghost" of her mother hanging around the town and taking care of her aunt, back in her hometown, which no one can really see.

So let's just say that the above is the setting and there's still more to see how the movie plays out. And really, it is rather interesting I think in how the character deals with all of this and what she has to go through and what she went through in her life upto this point, which we later find out. So if you get to see this, I hope you can enjoy it like I did.