Volver

Means “to return.” The main plot points here are murder and incest, and possibly resurrection. For a while it seems like Hitchcock, maybe The Trouble With Harry, about comic exploits disposing of a body. There is even an echo of Chinatown (“She’s my sister! She’s my daughter!) But it’s not about any of those things. It’s mostly about women and their relationships. It is very funny at times, and quite sad at others. Men hardly appear, except to be disposed of, or as irrelevant pests. That’s fine with me; it’s interesting to see a gay man’s take on women, and all these characters are finely drawn. Like all Pedro Almodóvar’s films it wanders around, but it’s always worth following. And yet, in the end, it didn’t quite all connect for me. Well worth watching, but not as good as I’d hoped.

Must say a word about Penelope Cruz. She has to be one of the most beautiful women in the world. Those eyes! And those … other parts! And she is a great actress, one who I think will age well, as Sophia Loren did. In fact, she reminds me of Loren, though their body types are quite different. Something in her bearing, perhaps, in the movements of her head and hands. I had forgotten that she was once involved with Tom Cruise, then I remembered hoping they’d be married so they could be Tom and Penelope Cruise-Cruz. But she dodged a bullet. I figure she realized before the rest of us that, though he’s handsome and smart and a good actor and probably a ton of fun to be with, that he’s crazy as a fuckin’ bedbug.