Volver

Plot synopsis:
Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Soledad (Lola Dueñas) are sisters who grew up in Alcanfor de las Infantas, a small village in La Mancha, but now both live in Madrid. Their parents died in a tragic fire three years prior to the beginning of the film.
Sole (Soledad) returns to the village for the funeral of her elderly and dementia-stricken Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave). Aunt Paula's neighbour Agustina (Blanca Portillo) confesses to Sole that she has heard Paula talking to the ghost of Sole's mother Irene (Carmen Maura). Sole encounters the ghost herself, and when she returns to Madrid, she discovers that the ghost has stowed away in the trunk of her car. Irene has brought luggage, intending to stay with her daughter for a while, and Sole, though frightened, agrees to let her mother stay with her: Sole operates a hair salon in her apartment, and Irene will assist her, posing as a Russian woman to hide her true identity. Sole tries to determine why her mother's ghost has returned to Earth, asking her if she left anything undone in her life. Irene says that she does have issues to resolve, relating to the questions of why Raimunda hates her and why she is afraid to reveal herself to Raimunda.
Meanwhile Raimunda and her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) have a different death to cope with. Paula's father Paco (Antonio de la Torre) attempts to rape her, claiming that he is not really her father, and Paula stabs him in self-defense. Raimunda quickly hides the corpse in the deep-freezer of a nearby restaurant with an absent owner. The restaurant owner, Emilio (Carlos Blanco), is out of town and entrusted Raimunda with the keys so that she can show it to prospective tenants. When members of a film crew happen upon the restaurant, Raimunda strikes a deal to cater for them, and suddenly finds herself back in the restaurant business.
Raimunda reveals to Paula that Paco was not, in fact, her biological father, and promises to tell her the whole story at a later time. Agustina is diagnosed with terminal cancer and must go to Madrid for medical treatment. Raimunda visits her in the hospital. Agustina asks Raimunda if she has seen her mother's ghost. Agustina hopes that the ghost will be able to tell her about the fate of her own mother, who disappeared three years ago without a trace. Raimunda undertakes the task of disposing of Paco's remains: she leaves Paula with Sole, rents a van and transports the freezer to a convenient spot by the river Júcar, 180 kilometres away. While staying in Sole's apartment, Paula meets her grandmother's ghost and grows close to her. The next night, Agustina comes to the restaurant to renew her request to Raimunda to ask her mother's ghost about her own mother's whereabouts. She reveals two startling secrets: that Raimunda's father and Agustina's mother were having an affair and that Agustina's mother disappeared on the same day that Raimunda's parents died.
Sole finally confesses to Raimunda that she has seen their mother's ghost and that the ghost is, in fact, watching television in the next room with Paula. Irene admits that she did not, in fact, die in the fire, and reveals the whole truth. We learn that the reason for Raimunda and Irene's estrangement is that Raimunda's father sexually abused her, resulting in the birth of Paula; thus Paula is Raimunda's daughter and also her sister. Raimunda had been angry with her mother for never noticing and ending this abuse. Irene tells Raimunda that she had never understood Raimunda's anger and distance until her Aunt Paula told her about what her husband had done to her daughter, and Irene became furious with herself when she found out.
Irene explains that she found her husband in bed with another woman and started the fire that killed them both. The ashes that had been presumed to be Irene's were, in fact, the ashes of Agustina's mother, the woman with whom Irene's husband was having an affair. After the fire, Irene wandered for several days in the countryside, until she decided that she wanted to turn herself in. But first, she wanted to say goodbye to her sister Paula, who had lost the ability to look after herself and with whom Irene had been living prior to setting the fire that killed her husband. Paula, who was living in the past due to her senility, welcomed Irene home as if nothing had happened, and Irene stayed, caring for her sister and expecting that the police would come soon to arrest her. Due to the superstitious and closed nature of the community, however, the police never came and the residents, who are accustomed to tales of the dead returning, explained the rare sightings of Irene as "un fantasma", a ghost.
The family reunites at Aunt Paula's house. Irene reveals her presence to Agustina, who believes her to be a ghost. Irene pledges to stay in the village and care for Agustina as her cancer worsens, saying to Raimunda that it was the least that she could do after killing Agustina's mother. In the last scene Raimunda visits her mother at Agustina's house. The two embrace and tell one another that they now have time to repair their relationship.

Tags: romantic, comedy, murder

Review:
Like Almodovar's 'Todo Sobre Mi Madre', 'Volver' is about distinctive female characters and the viewer loves these women and feel involved in their stories.Like most Almodovar's films, the soundtrack is part of the narration that adds to his slightly weird chaotic world.
The Spanish streets, the vivacious culture is just presented in Almodovar's unique style.'Volver' is witty, warm, funny, colourful, disturbing, uplifting and lightly dark with a well told story and lovable characters portrayed wonderfully by the actresses..
This is simple story about 3 generations of women: the grandmother Irene(Carmen Maura), her daughters Raimunda (Penélope Cruz)and Sole (Lola Dueñas) and her granddaughter Paula(Yohana Cobo).
The wild instinct of Penelope to construct a suburban animal, with strong links to Italian mommas, the touching interpretation of Blanca Portillo, simply mind blowing, the master lesson from Chus Lampreave that fills the theater with rivers of affection, the young actress Yohana Cobo that achieves success in some of the most difficult takes in the film, and Lola Dueñas that gets the plainest part and gives it a huge dimension with high level performance for comedy.
Sure I saw five of the eight films included in ¡Viva Pedro!, but those were DVD projections, while Volver was the real thing (as evidenced by it catching fire causing the six or so of us watching to wait a bit before seeing the final twenty minutes).
Both times seeing Cruz in her natural element were in Pedro films, but unlike Carne trémula and Todo sobre mi madre, where she played somewhat shy women, relying on her friends, here in Volver, she has an almost sexual awakening from those previous roles.
She goes through all emotions here, and I believe if Pedro allowed the film to stay true to the dramatic elements rather than playing some serious moments as comedic, her performance would have been elevated even higher.The supporting characters all do great work as well.
Since Luis Bunuel is my all-time favorite director, it might seem strange that I have stayed away from the most celebrated film-maker to emerge from this country in recent years but who has gradually turned himself into the Spanish Fellini (incidentally, I find the Italian maestro overrated).Anyway, Almodovar's latest  despite having been nominated for a great number of international awards, winning several of them  is essentially a charmingly humanistic film but, perhaps, too slight to be a masterpiece.
I liked everyone in the excellent cast, and the male and female actors , especially Penelope Cruz , were all very attractive , she became the first Spanish actress ever to be nominated for Best Lead Actress at the Oscars .
Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar who made successes such as Labyrinth of passions , Law of desire , Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown , Bad education , All about my mother , Talk to her , Broken embraces , The Skin I Live In and many others .
I'm a huge fan of Pedro Almodovar and this movie was no disappointment.I mean if you would just read the script it looks like a telenovela but it's directed in such a way that it becomes this very human drama that leaves you in a void after watching.I would definitely suggest you watching this if you're into dramas with great acting and of course, Pedro Almodovar.Very real, human and emotional.8/10..
You will see how feelings and emotions are driven smoothly by a great group of actresses (Penélope does a GREAT job along with Carmen Maura) which perfectly understand what the director wants to deliver and how to do it.It is another of those twisted bitter stories of life that Almodovar knows well and enjoys developing and producing them.
Ghosts Do not Cry. Raimunda (Penélope Cruz), her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) and her sister Sole (Lola Dueñas) travel from Madrid to the windy and superstitious village of Alcanfor de las Infantas to visit the grave of their mother and aunt Irene (Carmen Maura), who died years ago in a fire with her husband.
"Volver" is another great movie of this awesome director Pedro Almodóvar, who explores the emotions of the characters in a mysterious and traumatic situation.
Cobo was wonderful  natural and totally convincing for a girl who has grown up with a very friendly and close mother/daughter relationship.Overall this is a good film but I can understand why some Almodóvar fans will feel like it is lacking somewhat.
In a way, it reminds me of Woody Allen's later films, with little improbabilities and odd characters saying funny things, but layered with something tragic or painful or at least truly pathetic.Much like life itself, come to think of it.I do think Penelope Cruz as the frantic and astute mother and lead actress has a special way of inhabiting the screen, some star power thing.
Volver only needs a change of location to the Mid-West of America with Meryl Streep as the 'dead' mother, Shirley McLaine in a cameo as the aunt, and Penelope Cruz reprising her role as the valiant woman, a la Joan Crawford in Mildred Pierce,' and we have a typical mainstream feel-good Hollywood product.
Even Penelope Cruz in her role of Raimunda does a good job, making this perform the best of her career."Volver" it's a wonderful movie suitable even for those who doesn't like other Almodovar films, this movie has nothing to do with the rest of his Filmography.
"Volver" is above all about the closest, the most tender and most complex relationship two women may have, that of a mother and her daughter, and how far a mother would go to protect her child, her girl who is always a little girl for her no matter how old she is, and how much a mother would regret and blame herself for not having noticed things that would ruin her child's life and forever alter in the most devastating ways the child's love and trust for her mother.
In "Volver" ("To Return" in English), a mother (Irene, played by Carmen Maura) comes from dead to resolve the problems and to settle the affairs she could not finish during her life and by doing so, she would repair and re-vitalize her relationship with her daughters (Penélope Cruz, in an Oscar-nominated performance, and Lola Dueñas in an understated, subtly humorous performance) and her teenage granddaughter (Yohana Cobo, Cruz's daughter).
"Volver" is also the writer/director's love letter to the Italian films of 50th and 60th with the great stars Anna Magniani and Sophia Lauren shining as strong earthy beautiful and sensual women - mothers.
It is for that reason, in one of the scenes of "Volver", Irene watches on TV an old movie, "Bellissima" (1951) directed by Luchino Visconti with Anna Magnani as a mother who desperately tries to make her little girl's life better than hers.
It is also for the same reason, Penelope Cruz had to put on few pounds for her Raimunda and to use a prosthetic device that artificially enhanced her rear end and widened her hips which along with her huge dark eyes and voluptuous sex appeal made her look like Sophia Loren's of the "Two Women" (1960 ) re-incarnation.
While Fassbinder was able to show his admiration for but never idealization of women, Almodovar was not fully successful in his latest film due to the story which is inconclusive, non-logical, often implausible, and more than often simply non-involving with many plot lines never been resolved, many questions never been answered, and with the ending, abrupt like in the middle of the conversation.
For years, I have thought that some of the best movies that I have seen have come from Spain; Pedro Almodovar's "Volver" (which means "return") affirms this.
I think that Pedro Almodóvar is an excellent director(my favorite movie directed by him is All about my mother).But Almodóvar disappointed me with Bad education.It's the worst movie from this director and it's very boring.But with Volver,Almodóvar is totally redeemed.Volver is one of Almodovar's best movies.Volver is a fun and very touching movie with a great message.Penélope Cruz has a great performance on this movie but Carmen Maura steals the show.Her performance on this movie is spectacular.Volver is a great movie directed by a great director.A must see.Rating:9.5.
The set-up is the kind of airport-novel-of-a-movie my mother would sit down to read on a rainy day, and certainly most women with lap up Pedro Almodóvar's flatteringly strong depiction of them, but will "Volver" it find an audience with men?For all its wide-ranging and complex family tree that needs screen time, the film does progress at a rather sedated and patient speed, often lingering not on plot elements but on the working class-ness and the struggle of each woman, whether it be abuse or overwork.
The absolute faith in the power of women makes the characters of "Volver" not nuanced persons, but unrealistic superwomen.Raimunda played by Penelope Cruz, inhabiting the protagonist slot, elicits the most sympathy from the viewer and rightly so for she is both well-written and well-acted.
I just wish that the newspaper reviews of "Volver" that I read had told me that, so I would have known that the movie is about mother-daughter relationships that are going to be more meaningful to women than to men and that the portrayal of men (I'll choose to think that it is only Spanish men in this instance) is likely to be unidimensional, stereotypical, and negative.
For Aldomovar to recycle those ideas in his pro-women film is disingenuous at best and in the end doesn't really work.While watching it I also had a vivid sense of deja vu and then figured out that VOLVER is a sorta unofficial remake of the Michael Curtis/Joan Crawford film, MILDRED PIERCE (about a single mother who tries her best to raise her daughter while running a restaurant; the story also involves a murder).
With a lusty, no-nonsense manner to complement her sensual allure, Penélope Cruz seems to be channeling Sophia Loren (especially in Vittorio de Sica's "Two Women") as Raimunda, an airport cleaning woman who finds her life turned upside down by unexpected death, possible ghosts and a thriving restaurant in Pedro Almodovar's 2006 film.
A curious mix of absurdist comedy and melodrama with a touch of the surreal, it plays out like a cross between an old Warner Brothers women's picture (like Michael Curtiz's "Mildred Pierce") and de Sica's lighter social comedies from the 1960's (like "Marriage, Italian Style") but with Almodovar's particularly askew perspective and his trademark use of saturated bright colors.The meandering film focuses on a close group of women, most prominently Raimunda and her timid hairdresser sister Sole, who shuttle between Madrid, where they live, and La Mancha, the central region where they buried their parents who died recently in a fire.
Regardless, Cruz is a far more interesting actress in her native tongue as she is given a fully dimensional character to play and even a chance to sing (albeit dubbed).Though somewhat overshadowed by Cruz's buxom presence, the remaining cast is solid with Almodovar regular Carmen Maura a gravitating presence as Irene, Lola Dueñas effortlessly bringing the insecurity out of Sole and Yohana Cabo as Raimunda's unusually becalming daughter Paula.
Three generations of women: The granny (Carmen Maura) returning from the dead, the mother Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) returning from her discordant life, and daughter (Yohana Cobo) recovering from abuse from her step father.
I had to read the English subtitles and I think it lost some things in the translation, especially the humor.If you like films about female bonding, then you might like "Volver." If you are expecting a story about a ghost, then you will be very disappointed..
Many thanks to our local Cineworld at Woodgreen for screening Director Pedro Almodovar's latest movie, 'Volver'.To sum up the film in one word: ¡Excelente!
It has a good balance of drama, intrigue, mystery, and humour, with superb acting by all the cast, especially the main protagonists: Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Carmen Machi, Pilar Castro, Antonio de la Torre, Yohana Cobo, and Lola Duenas, who play their roles most sensitively.I went to see the movie yesterday with my youngest daughter, 23.
Her sister also is affected by some family secrets and ends up meeting the 'ghost' of her dead mother, but there is more to this little reunion than is expected.The film is ultimately about mother-daughter relationships, regret, and people working together in the times of crisis.
But she reunites with Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodovar in Volver, and surely, this is one movie that shouldn't be missed, for the simple reason that it has a superior story to tell, stemmed from Mother's love.In a tale spanning three generations of a family, at first glance this is a pro-woman movie, where most of the men portrayed are cads.
At the time Cruz was only 18, but she looked much younger, she appeared to be 'used' (by U.S. standards) by the filmmaker in this sexy Spanish comedy.A few years later I saw the 1988 film by director Pedro Almodovar, 'Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown'.
So much so, that recently, in my small town, a 'Pedro Almodovar Film Festival' was held featuring such works as 'All About My Mother', 'Bad Education' and my favorite, 'Talk To Her'.Pedro Almodovar's latest venture, 'Volver' is a reunion with Penelope Cruz, who through the years has become, Spain's screen goddess.
The plot is much more than a mother/daughter relationship; it involves the family, community and years of deceit.Almodovar wrote and directs this film with such precision you instantly relate to each character; Raimunda's teen daughter Paula, who carries a terrible secret, her timid sister, Sole and others.
That helps, because Almodovar skates so tightly on the line between a dark thriller and light, feminine comedy, that it's amazing he doesn't come out all nicked and scarred, so all the ladies go through the fun and sorrow too.The story of Volver involves Raimunda (Penelope Cruz), with an ailing aunt, dead mother, and a husband who's a dead-beat and possible sexual deviant (actually, for the most part, any male character of significance is a wretched being).
And Cruz remarkably puts in a great emotional connection to the character at the crucial moments too, particularly when she finally comes around to what happened with her mother, and with some melodrama included it's still pretty touching.Granted, even with the darker twists included, and moments of levity that can only come out of a Spanish filmmaker (see scene where Raimunda has to deal with acquaintances on the street hassling her about food), it's not as hard-hitting as his other previous efforts, and certainly not as controversial.
Back in Madrid things don't go well; Paula kills her abusive father and later, after their aunt dies, the ghost of their mother comes to stay with Soledad!I really enjoyed this film; it may deal with dark themes at times but there is a lightness of touch that means one can enjoy the frequent humour.
(The cast received a collective Best Actress Award at Cannes for that film.) Here he uses a similar formula for a story based in Madrid.As this movie begins, two sisters, Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas) as well as Raimunda's daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo) are attending to the grave site of the sisters' late parents who had died when their house burned down.
Volver is one of the most acclaimed films of Pedro Almodovar, I watched the recent film of his Juliet, and was disappointed, since in Volver in liked the movie is a good movie, the cast is very good, Penelope Cruz this impeccable, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas and Yohana Cobo are all well, the rest of the cast is competent, the dialogues are good, some are funny, the script is very good, can use very well the characters, the direction of Almodovar is good, the soundtrack is cool , is going to really like the picture is great, the rhythm is good, more can lose strength at times have unnecessary moments, the more I liked the movie, Aldomovar is good at making great female characters.
Almodovar has never made me sit up as a film director, but Penelope Cruz and all the female cast are indeed a delight to watch and deserved the Cannes accolade.
I'm not a Penelope Cruz fan but this is probably the one and only movie I like her in, her character plays a strong role and she feels so much emotion throughout the entire film.
Penelope Cruz stars in "Volver," a Pedro Almodovar film from 2006.
With what was once thought to be lost forever now back, they both have second chances, but the problem is that Sole's sister, Raimunda (Cruz), had a falling out with her mother as children, so Sole tries to hide Irene from her, even though Raimunda and her daughter Paula are working out problems of their own.That complicated explanation alone is what keeps "Volver" from being a truly wonderful film.
By cunningly capturing the talents of very well known Spanish actresses Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura and Blanca Portillo, Almodovar directs a film that embraces its audience with its refined comedy and melodramatic style.
Penelope Cruz plays one of the best roles in her career as Regina, a risk-taking, courageous but unquestionably gorgeous mother, who becomes a widow within the first fifteen minutes of the film thanks to her daughter Paula.
I would have to say Volver is Almodovar's most mature work to date.The film tells the story of three generations of women, which along the line reveals many secrets and deceits that had caused unhappiness in the past.
So pulling in sell out crowds and being held as his best film for years, welcome Volver, Pedro's latest movie and vehicle for his latest muse Penelope Cruz.
I always enjoy Almodovar movies, but never as much as I think I'm supposed to."Volver," like other Almodovar films, has a beautiful story at its core -- this one about mothers and daughters, things left unsaid, secrets to be revealed, wrongs to be righted.