Precious is a new-style weepie but one that is much more bracing than depressing
Precious
Theatre
Ian McKellen is captivating throughout. He delights in the play’s gallows humour, yet is also maudlin and poignant
Waiting for Godot
Theatre
Slight quibbles notwithstanding, this will set the West End’s stock riding high
Enron
Utterly, utterly brilliant. You really are in for a treat
Though 'Trilogy' has won rave reviews, I personally found myself exasperated after about an hour
We went on a quiet sunday evening and the food was excellent, but the experience let down by the service and ambiance
London,
Derek Malcolm's rating
Reader rating
Dir: Pedro Almodovar.
Cast: Penelope Cruz, Lola Duenas, Carmen Maura
Description: Raimunda and Sole struggle to contend with the death of their beloved Aunt Paula and the accidental killing of Raimunda's husband Paco. While Raimunda hides Paco's body in a deep freezer, Sole attends Paula's funeral and is shocked when she learns that the locals have glimpsed the ghost of their dead mother, Irene. At first, Sole dismisses these sightings as fantasy, but when she returns to Madrid, Sole is shocked to discover the ghost of Irene has followed her home, intent on healing old wounds with her daughters.
Country: SP. 2006. 121mins
Cutting edge: Penèlope Cruz plays a woman who refuses to be defeated
Seeing a good film-maker at the top of his form is a rare pleasure indeed. And Pedro Almodóvar is certainly at the top of his form. For this, one of his most fluent and assured movies, he has returned to his roots: Volver ( pronounced Bollbear, meaning to come back, in Spanish) is a celebration of the pueblo where he grew up.
The storyline may be fractured and at times puzzling but it doesn't matter because the style and feeling are so completely right. It amounts to a kind of European magic realism, absurdist but shrewdly grounded in accurate character drawing.
The opening scene establishes the tone. Dozens of women patiently scrub the graves of their deceased relatives. One of them, Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), is a cleaner who has moved with her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) and feckless husband Paco (Antonio de Torre) from La Mancha to Madrid. Her mother, Abuela Irene (Carmen Maura), died in a fire a few years previously and ailing aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave) still lives in the pueblo.
It is a hard life made harder for Raimunda when she finds her daughter wandering the streets in a daze, having stabbed her presumed father to death when he tried to abuse her. Raimunda hides the body in the freezer and then dumps it.
Not long after, it seems that her mother has returned from the dead. We are now in the realms of ghost story, farce, tragedy and melodrama.
Perhaps only Almodóvar could swing it and he does so almost seamlessly, taking us away from Madrid and back to his birthplace where large skeletons in family cupboards are not unusual.
Cruz is magnificent - prosthetic bottom, push-up bra and all - avoiding the obviousness of a star performance in favour of showing us an ordinary woman to be celebrated for her sheer refusal to be defeated by circumstances.
Maura, too, happily reunited with Almodóvar after their well-publicised spat several years ago, roots her character securely in reality even if she may be a ghost.
There are other fine performances from the all-important women in the cast, including those of Lola Dueñas as Raimunda's hairdresser sister Sole and Blanca Portillo as Agustina, whose own mother has mysteriously disappeared.
There's no doubt that Almodóvar sees women far more accurately than most, but his sympathy never congeals into easy sentiment.
Almodóvar is one of the very best talents in Europe and appeals to the widest audiences because, while he is intensely serious, he is determined to entertain.
If Volver is about the influence of the dead on the living, and the way we are all formed by the past, it is, like Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, an emotional journey which is as comic as it is serious, and as good to think about as it is to watch.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
I'm a big fan of Aldomovar's work's and rate this along with his best. Its an intriguing story, beautifully acted with top performances from Cruz and Maura. Without some of the most imaginative film sequences of earlier offerings this tale nevertheless is all the more plausible for it.
A must for all fans of world cinema.
- John Cairns, Bishops Stortford, Herts
Volver is meant to be the best film in London at the moment and it was brilliant! I saw it after a friend told me to watch it and she warned me that I would have a few tears at the end. Well I have to say I sobbed! This film is certainly sweeping the capital at the moment - everyone I know has seen it and it's all everyone's talking about at those awful middle class dinner parties. You must see this film.
- Abigail, Brick Lane
Another excellent Almodovar with a great cast. An emotionally engaging journey seen through quietly powerful women. Probably his most commercial film but no less an experience for that. Cruz looked amazing - perhaps too amazing for a down trodden Madrid housewife but that's a minor criticism. Used the film search on here to find my local where it was on, quick and easy!
- Mike, London N7
I can't wait to see this movie! I'm absolutely in love with Almodóvar's work - Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown is my favourite - and have long believed that there's a lot more to come from Penélope Cruz than she's been able to demonstrate in the rather insipid Hollywood roles she's had so far.
- Justin, Walthamstow, UK
After Penelope Cruz's last couple of films (Vanilla Sky, Captain Corelli's Mandolin), I had written her off as a schmaltzy Hollywood clone. But this film has made me reconsider - Volver is probably her best ever performance, strong, convincing and emotional. Almodovar seems to have a sixth sense when it comes to directing a female cast. He has an ability to draw out emotions and performances in a way that no other directors can, and the pairing of Cruz with Carmen Maura make this film one of the most touching and uplifting I've seen in a long time.
- Didi, Crouch End
I saw a preview of Volver and I have to say that it made a change to see Penelope Cruz looking saucy rather than just pretty! It's a great film - I can see that - but it's not one I particularly enjoyed. It was rather brooding and intense. Much like the director, I'd imagine! I don't think the structured storyline worked, and I'd have liked a more satisfying ending, but I am glad I watched this. One to talk about at dinner parties rather than the pub.
- Joshua Gladstone, Islington, UK
Tonight:
-1°c
