Though it may seem churlish to knock a film-maker whose only crime has been a naked desire to please audiences, Volver really is one of Pedro Almodóvar's weaker efforts.
Volver (2006)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work ![]()
Reviews Counted:158
Fresh:144
Rotten:14
Average Rating:7.7/10
Consensus: Volver catches director Pedro Almodovar and star Penelope Cruz at the peak of their respective powers, in service of a layered, thought-provoking film. This magical tragicomic melodrama may be Almodovar's most restrained work to date, but it still features his trademarks: a strong attention to color and detail, a celebration of the trials and tribulations of women, and, of course, the inestimable Carmen Maura. The lovely Penelope Cruz hasn't shone more brightly as she does here.
Theatrical Release:25-08-2006
Synopsis: Madrid. Today. Raimunda is a young mother, hard working and very attractive, with an unemployed husband and a daughter in mid-adolescence. The family finances are very shaky, so Raimunda has got... Madrid. Today. Raimunda is a young mother, hard working and very attractive, with an unemployed husband and a daughter in mid-adolescence. The family finances are very shaky, so Raimunda has got several jobs. She is a very strong woman, a born fighter, but also very fragile emotionally. She has kept a terrible secret to herself since childhood. Her sister Sole is a little older. Timid and fearful, she makes her living with an illegal (undeclared) hair salon. Her husband left her and went off with a client. Since then she has lived on her own. Paula is their aunt. She lives in a village in La Mancha where the whole family was born. A village swept by the east wind, the direct cause of the high rate of insanity registered there. That damn wind is responsible for the many fires that devastate the area every summer. The parents of Sole and Raimunda died in one of those fires. A Sunday in spring, Sole calls Raimunda to tell her that Agustina (a neighbour in the village) has phoned to tell her that their Aunt Paula has died. Raimunda adored her aunt, but she can’t go to the funeral because moments before getting the call from her sister, when she had just come back from one of her jobs, she had found her husband dead in the kitchen, with a knife stuck in his chest. Her daughter confesses that she killed him because he had got drunk and kept making sexual advances to her. The most important thing for Raimunda is to save her daughter. She still doesn't know how, but what she certainly can’t do is accompany Sole to their aunt's funeral in La Mancha. Sole reluctantly goes back to the village on her own. Among the women who accompany her at the wake she hears rumours that her mother (who died in a fire with her father) came back from the other world to look after Aunt Paula in her final years, when she was ill. The neighbours talk quite naturally about the mother's "ghost". When Sole returns to Madrid, after parking her car, she hears noises coming from the trunk. A voice calls to her to open it and let her out, and says that she’s her mother. Sole is terrified at first. The knocking from the inside the trunk continues. Sole opens it and discovers the ghost of her mother in there, surrounded by bags. She doesn't dare even look at her, but when she manages to overcome her fear she sees that the ghost is just as her mother was in life, except that her hair is almost white and unkempt and her skin is paler. She brings her upstairs to her apartment, and asks her how long she is going to stay. For as long as God wills, the ghost answers. Given the range of that reply, Sole has got no choice but to live with her mother’s ghost and let her get involved in the work in the hair salon. She introduces her to the first clients as a Russian beggar she met on the street and took in out of charity. When there are clients, the mother doesn’t speak, she just washes their hair and smiles. Sole doesn't dare tell her sister about the situation she's in. For her part, Raimunda only tells her that Paco, her husband, has left her and that she has a feeling he won't be back. Really, she is trying to get rid of his body, but she can't find the right moment because she has got a new job that pays well and also offers a possible solution to her pressing problem… (what to do with the body). The untenable becomes routine. Each of the two sisters takes a leap in the dark, surviving situations that are very tense, melodramatic, comic and also very emotional. Both women resolve them with audacity and by telling endless lies. "Volver" is a story of survival. All the characters are fighting to survive, even the grandmother's ghost. The grandmother's ghost tells Sole that she wants to see her daughter Raimunda, and her granddaughter. She has to talk to Raimunda. In fact, that conversation is the reason she has come back from the other world… and that supernatural urgency has to do with the secret that Raimunda has hidden since she was a child. She doesn't tell Sole this. But Raimunda has a very strong character, she isn't as soft as Sole and she doesn't believe in ghosts, not even when she finds her mother hiding under the bed, in Sole's house… All this is just the beginning of a story that is complex and simple, touching and atrocious, one that affects the women in Raimunda's family, the neighboring women and a few men. [More]
Starring: Carmen Maura, Penelope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo
Starring: Carmen Maura, Penelope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Chus Lampreave, Cobo Yohana, Antonio de la torre, Carlos Blanco, Maria Isabel Diaz, Neus Sanz
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Producer: Esther Garcia
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Reviews for Volver
A deeply resonant, thought-provoking story about how making sense of the past can help clarify our present and future.
A touching, beautifully plotted film, full of memorable images and jokes, it zips along without a wasted second in its 121 minutes.
Almodovar infuses proceedings with a horrible sense of self-satisfaction and also has a disconcerting habit of lots of lingering, leery shots of his lead actresses’ bodies, including a pervy close-up of a teenage girl’s groin.
...It’s some achievement that the film is both funnier and more moving on repeated viewing, when its pervasive dramatic ironies emerge.
Penelope Cruz has never looked more beautiful and she gives a sensational, career best performance as Raimunda.
A mature and beautifully told tale of family and the ghosts that haunt us.
The humour and the heartstring-pulling hit the mark, as do most of the cast, not least Cruz.
Almodóvar's maturity navigates not only the thin lines between comedy and drama and between body and spirit, but also between rebellion and acceptance
It's up to charm to twinkle our attention away from the loose threads and daytime TV plotting.
At the center of this hectic universe, [Cruz] never misses a step and may even elevate what Almodovar originally conceived.
With all its unexpected twists and turns, the story still unfolds naturally, like some gaudy Mediterranean flower.
Pedro Almodovar's Volver is amazingly bright, fresh and clean for a film dealing with murder, adultery, incest, malignant disease and the occasional supernatural apparition.
Hollywood, take notice: If you hand Penelope Cruz a role with more depth than the paper it's printed on, this is what you'll get.
Until now, you may not have considered Penelope Cruz the modern-day successor to Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford. But director Pedro Almodovar's delightful 'Volver' could change your mind.
Latest News for Volver
May 20, 2009:
Cannes 2009: The Tomato Report – Almodovar's Broken Embraces a Comfortable Favourite
Pedro Almodovar is a firm favourite in Cannes, so it's no surprise to see his new film Broken Embraces receiving largely positive reviews from the assembled critics. The... More...
May 10, 2009:
Cannes 2009: RT's 10 Most Anticipated Movies
The Cannes Film Festival will screen nearly 100 films as part of its Official Selection and associated sidebars when it kicks off next week in the Southern France town. The... More...
January 30, 2007:
SAG Award Winners Revealed, Oscar Predicting Hits Full Steam
Known as a big predictor of what'll go down Oscar night, the Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony took place last Sunday to a rapturous Hollywood crowd without a hitch (or... More...
January 29, 2007:
Box Office Guru Wrapup: "Epic Movie" Conquers Box Office
Proving that there's always money in spoof comedies, Fox's "Epic Movie" shot straight to number one over the weekend in its debut frame beating out three other new... More...
More DVDs
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 68% 68% | Funny People |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 14% 14% | The Ugly Truth |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 86% 86% | A Christmas Tale |
| 60% 60% | Paper Heart |
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Sponsored Links
Fresh Links
Featured

Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.

Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.



Top Critic

