Review of To Return (1982) by Zane U — 02 Jul 2009
I was surprised by how much I liked Volver. It is the first Almodovar film that I have seen (though Bad Education and Talk To Her are recent additions to my dvd collection), and I sort of assumed that he would be a director that I could respect and reasonably enjoy from a film student POV.
Not true in the best of ways. Volver was unadulterated fun (I'm not sure what unadulterated means, but I'm using it as "fun w/o guilt"). What one might assume to be the driving plotpoint, the death of Cruz's husband, is merely a macguffin for a story about relationships that has enough flare and strangeness that it is something entirely new.
Penelope Cruz is beautiful. Almodovar obviously knows this, as he brings it to the fore of the foreground. Indeed, there are moments when it's as if the actual camera is looking longingly at her. That's not to say that her performance is anything short of great, in the least quirky role of the film, and the supporting cast is equally good at making the quirk seem real and not out-of-place.
This review of To Return (1982) was written by Zane U on 02 Jul 2009.
To Return has generally received very positive reviews.
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