Talk to Her
Talk to Her ★★★½ Hable con Ella 2002 (R)
Powerful entry from director Almodovar about the bond of two men caring for comatose women. Marco (Grandinetti), a travel writer, in the early stages of dating Spain's most famous female bullfighter Lydia (Flores), finds himself looking after her after she is gored by a bull. Benigno (Camara) is a male nurse who looks after the comatose Alicia (Watling), a ballerina he has only seen from afar but loves. The two men meet in the hospital and, sharing similar experiences, come to know one another in their grief. While both men are truly caring during their bedside vigils, a slightly disturbing, kinky undercurrent is also at work, and strange and shocking events will occur before film fully unspools. Refusing to judge these actions, however, Almodovar artfully offers some alternate motivations for his characters' seemingly antisocial behaviors and takes material that could have easily been a soap opera in lesser hands, and elevates it to a new level. Silent fantasy sequence depicts director's signature sexual exploration. 112m/C VHS, DVD . SP Javier Camara, Dario Grandinetti, Rosario Flores, Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin; D: Pedro Almodovar; W: Pedro Almodovar; C: Javier Aguirresarobe; M: Alberto Iglesias. Oscars ‘02: Orig. Screenplay; British Acad. ‘02: Foreign Film, Orig. Screenplay; Golden Globes ‘03: Foreign Film; L.A. Film Critics ‘02: Director (Almodovar); Natl. Bd. of Review ‘02: Foreign Film.