Talk to Her (2002)

I've been meaning to watch Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella) for the longest time as I read a lot of great things about it. Unfortunately, it didn't meet my expectations. 

Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a nurse who has dedicated his past four years of life to his only patient, Alicia (Leonor Watling), a young and beautiful dancer in a coma as a result of an accident. Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is a journalist who is in love with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is also in a coma after being gored by a bull. The two men meet in the hospital and a friendship begins to develop.

The plot manages to be interesting and disappointing altogether. With a part of it set in the present and a part set in the past, Almodóvar skillfully plays with time and makes the story more interesting by using texts to indicate the period. What's fascinating about it is that he doesn't always indicate when we are seeing a flashback which makes the story more confusing and intriguing. Not to mention the surprising twists. And yet, it never fully engaged me and I found that the plot relies too much on contrived coincidences, especially on Benigno's story --I mean, the girl Benigno has a crush on has an accident, goes in a coma and is submitted to the hospital in which Benigno works? Come on, Pedro, you can do better than that.

That, however, it's that big of a deal since Talk to Her is all about its characters. They are very unusual as Almodóvar's protagonists are usually strong and striking female characters and this time around the protagonists are two men. Unfortunately, although Almodóvar put a lot of effort and time into developing the characters and getting us to know them, I never felt sympathy for any of them, which is something you are supposed to feel because of the way the characters are delivered to us.

Warner Sogefilms, Sony Pictures Classics

On the other hand, they are quite interesting as Almodóvar plays a little with gender roles. Lydia is a bullfighter which is associated with men as it is a traditionally masculine activity. Benigno is a nurse which is usually associated with women. Same goes with Marco who is very sensitive. At the same time, these characters have still those characteristics associated with their gender.

The cast does a good job, the standout easily being Javier Cámara. He is superb as Benigno as he portrays the character's sensitivity and neediness very well, not to mention how he manages to deliver some incredible things with a very straight face.

And yet, in spite of all that, Talk to Her didn't really work for me and only in part, it has something to do with the awful way animals were treated while making this film. Bulls were killed for real in this film.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

Original Title

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios

Genres

Comedy, Drama

Director

Pedro Almodóvar

Country

Spain

Cast

Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, Maria Barranco, Fernando Guillén, Kiti Manver, Ana Leza, Chus Lampreave, Loles Leon

Storyline

As she tries to find out why Ivan (Fernando Guillén) left her, Pepa (Carmen Maura) has to confront Ivan's wife (Julieta Serrano) and son (Antonio Banderas) while helping her friend Candela (Rossy de Palma) who is afraid the police might be looking for her because of her boyfriend, a Shiite terrorist.

Opinion

I loved all of Almodóvar's films I've seen so far. Some are disturbing, others are touching but they all have a thing in common, they have depth. That's what's missing in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. That doesn't prevent it from being a fantastic film though heavily influenced by Hollywood's screwball comedies.

The plot could have been better though. It's simple and yet it manages to be complicated and a little confusing and it seems taken straight out of a telenovela (soap opera). It does, however, take some unpredictable turns which make it a little bit more interesting, and the multiple storylines come together beautifully.  

The lack of an engaging plot isn't a real problem because the film is brought to life by some great characters and even greater performances from the cast. They make the story interesting and ultimately the film worth the time. Especially the central character of Pepa. Although it doesn't reach Almodóvar's usual level of depth, there's some good examination of the protagonist and her inner conflicts - although the surplus of characters kind of distract from this.

But that's the beauty of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown if you ask me. All those wonderfully developed and eccentric supporting characters make this film so good. 

And fun. Almodóvar knows comedy can be found everywhere, even in sad things like suicide, and he plays with it. Why even bother creating intentionally funny moments when you can have a group of characters interacting "normally" and make people laugh with it?