Volver

Quirky and melodramatic to an almost absurd degree, Volver casts Penelope Cruz as Raimunda – a hard-working Spaniard who must cope with the sudden appearance of her mother (a woman who’s been dead for several years). Complicating matters is the sudden death of her abusive husband and an unexpected gig as a caterer for a local film production. It doesn’t take Volver long to firmly establish itself as a ludicrous, distinctly trashy piece of work that has little to offer all but the most ardent Pedro Almodóvar fan, and there’s simply no overlooking the vibe of desperation inherent to virtually every aspect of the movie. This is despite an opening hour that’s actually kind of engaging, as the director focuses on Raimunda’s various problems; nobody does trashiness quite as well as Almodóvar, and he’s infused Volver with an unmistakably heightened sense of reality. But as the movie progresses and the whole dead-lady-who’s-not-dead-anymore stuff goes front and center, it becomes virtually impossible to actually care about any of this. To describe Volver as frustrating is an understatement; there’s a lot here that works, but there’s far more that’s simply interminable.

*1/2 out of ****