Talk To Her [2002]

Unusually for Almodovar, the emphasis is on the two male characters, with the female leads spending much of the film as "objects" in a vegetative state. Dario Grandinetti plays Marco, a journalist who befriends Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter. Following a goring in the ring, she lapses into a coma. At the clinic where she is kept on life support, Marco meets a somewhat effete male nurse, Benigno (Javier Camara) who lovingly tends to a ballet student, Alicia, also chronically comatose. They strike up a friendship, their respective stories emerging through flashbacks. Both, however, respond to their common fate in different ways. Marco is distraught at the loss of Lydia, whereas the dysfunctional Benigno is blissful, tending to Alicia, for whom he nourished an obsession prior to accident. Reduced to being a vegetable, she is fully, unresistingly, his.

It's a tribute to Almodovar that he is able to handle the outlandish, potentially appalling subject matter of Talk To Her with such finesse. Emotionally, it's often on a knife edge; there are moments when you don't know whether to laugh, gasp or sigh. But when ultimately you find yourself welling with tears of sympathy for an alleged rapist, you realise what a master filmmaker Almodovar is.

On the DVD: Talk To Her offers an excellent transfer of a visually handsome movie. Extras are a little disappointing--just trailers for Almodovar's more outlandish Live Flesh and All About My Mother. --David Stubbs

The film begins and ends in the theatre. The performances there suitably reflect the dilemmas evoked in the film and the relationships of the men with their women. The fascinating thing about this film is the way that a story between the men is handled on the surface whilst a subconsciouss story is told by the women in their comas. Gradually, through the use of flashbacks, their story emerges and we are led to image what is happening in their heads while in the hospital. It is interesting to note that the silent film sequence was originally written by Almodovar to be made into a full-length silent film. What we are given is a delightful though shocking glimpse of what that would have been. It is touching to see Almodovar's small nod of tribute to Michael Cunningham's The Hours which is a novel he states he really enjoyed. The film characteristically stretches our ideas of high drama and the far-reaching regions of sexuality. This is a beautiful film to follow from Almodovar's internationally successful All About My Mother (Todo Sobre Mi Madre).


I wept   January 10, 2003
Michael Lavocah (Norwich, England)
22 out of 24 found this review helpful

Almodovar's previous film, Todo Sobre Mi Madre, left me wrung out like a wet flannel. Critics' reviews had told me that this film was not as strong. They were wrong. I wept uncontrollably, and was eventually thrown out of the cinema by the usherette who wanted to close up.

After watching this film, I felt as though anglophone cinema had nothing to over. Almodovar delivers totally credible, complex characters who are impossible to judge. Javier Camara's performance as the nurse Benigno is one of the best pieces of acting you are ever likely to see.

Does Almodovar manipulate you? (You won't understand this question until you have seen the film). No more or less intentionally than any other director: he just does it much, much better. My best film of 2002.


A Beautiful Film of Love, Loneliness and Friendship. Superb   July 5, 2005
17 out of 18 found this review helpful

This film by the fantastic director Almodovar is an absolute corker. It is more than your run of the mill love story; you never get just an ordinary plot from him. The story is about two men and their respective loves. Marco is in love with a female bullfighter, who is gored and ends up in hospital. He meets Benigno, a nurse caring for a dancer left in a coma after a car crash. The two men find friendship together; connected by the two women, both in comas. This film will stay with you for years. I, like the previous reviewer, wept at some of the final scenes, because I felt close to these men, and had fallen into their lives completely. Almadovar gives us the perfect ending to the tale, one not entirely unexpected, but perfect nonetheless. The musical score is superb, very fitting the atmosphere. The acting is perfect, especially Benigno. The story is absorbing, weird, funny and sad. Once again, this director has given us a study of human relationships and the twists and turns they go through along the road of life. Treat yourself to this film. Box of chocs, bottle of wine, plenty of kleenex and a good friend.


Another Almodavar classic   July 14, 2004
Penguin Egg (London, England)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful

"Talk to Her" follows the tragic paths of four people: Marco and Benigno, Lydia and Alicia. Marco falls in love with Lydia, a female bullfighter, who is gored by a bull. Benigno becomes obsessed with a dancer, Alicia, whom he can see from his apartment window practising in a studio. A car knocks Alicia down and Benigno becomes her nurse. Both women slip into a coma and it is in the hospital that the two men meet. Without giving too much of the plot away, they both lose the woman in their lives, but they find friendship with one another. This is the bare bones of the story. As with most of Almodovar's films, there are subtle depths that require repeated viewing to appreciate them fully. Almodavar deftly weaves the separate strands of the complex relationship of the four leading characters into a tightly focused and compelling piece of story-telling. Sad and uplifting, ironic and sympathetic, touching and unsentimental, this is a wonderful film. The acting is first-rate; Alberto Iglesias' score is enchanting, and Javier Aguirresarobe's cinematography is easy on the eye.


What utter rubbish   July 7, 2004
11 out of 38 found this review helpful

I purchased this film after having thoroughly enjoyed the same director's 'All About My Mother'. But this one is nowhere near as good .

Difficult to say exactly what is missing but let me hazard a few guesses : shallow storyline , unsympathetic characters , rambling direction and just the whole conception is flimsy. If you haven't seen 'All About My Mother' I recommend it to you unreservedly - but definitely not this . Stay well clear .