Talk to Her (2002)
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Talk to Her Movie Review
Talk to Her is a 2002 Spanish drama film directed by Pedro Almodovar. It is such an authentic, one of a kind experience.
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“Nothing is simple.
I’m a ballet mistress, and nothing is simple“
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The film concerns two stories of two men who are in a hospital with their girlfriends who are in a coma. Eventually, these two stories intersect and the two men develop a very interesting friendship with one another. Surely this storyline is very original and unlike anything I’ve seen before. It gets a lot of the mileage from its originality, but it is superbly crafted as well.
This is the kind of flashback structure I like, the one employed in this film. It is very elegant and it benefits from excellent editing that I ended up loving it. Because we did not know much about either of its characters before the tragedies strike, the flashbacks were essential this time around and the level to detail exhibited in them and in the entire film is respectable.
Beningo is a very odd person and the film walks the fine line between portraying him as a sweetheart or as a sick person. I will talk more about the morally ambiguous complexities later, but he definitely is the definition of an ambiguous character and he is done right as he is so well portrayed by Javier Camara and he definitely ended up being the most memorable aspect of the film.
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I really liked Marco Zuluaga. He is such a likable, charming man and I definitely connected with him the most personally. And Dario Grandinetti gave a phenomenal performance. The relationship that develops between these two has a touch of bromance in it, but it is mostly such a wonderfully offbeat friendship that stems from odd circumstances but still ended up being strong and tragic. Both Lydia and Alicia are less developed, but still having in mind that they are in a coma, they ended up being well realized mostly thanks to those deft flashbacks.
So Talk to Her is a very weird film that is also highly intellectual and emotional. It manages to have the right mix of strong emotion and themes and thus it is both smart and moving, two qualities most important to me. It is thematically and emotionally very rich and complex and its complexities make it such a unique, incredible cinematic achievement.
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It is a film that showcases the moral dilemmas of this situation. It left the “rape” of Alicia ambiguous even though Beningo probably did it. And this act is portrayed as it could be romantic, but also criminal. His entire character walks that fine line between a sick person and a romantic and the film cleverly portrayed both sides as some scenes were definitely highly moving, but some definitely hinted that his obsession with Alicia might not be very healthy at all.
It portrays how different men and women are and how complex their relationships can be, but it also portrays straight men in a very different light – as emotional, caring and vulnerable. Beningo is a romantic and a very caring, meticulous person whereas Marco is a highly emotional man as evidenced by his many outbursts of crying with which I personally connected as I can be quite emotional too. Almodovar gave us a movie about men for once, straight men, and he succeeded thoroughly.
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This surely is one of his best films along with ‘All About My Mother’. It isn’t perfect, however, as it has its flaws such as that silent film sequence which was interesting, but just too bizarre to fathom for me personally. I get it, but I did not love it. And I thought it is a drama, not a comedy. But his direction is very strong, the performances are great and the film is very well shot, mostly well edited and superbly scored with such a beautiful score that really moved me.
With excellent performances, highly confident direction from Almodovar and a one of a kind script, Talk to Her truly is a terrific film which is thought-provoking thematically, highly affecting emotionally and all around such an original, complex film. It is not perfect (the silent movie scene was honestly too bizarre for me), but its editing is very good, the flashback structure is deftly employed and the music is simply beautiful and it moved me quite a bit. Emotionally and morally rich and complex, Talk to Her is an incredible cinematic experience.
