Volver

At last! A movie with a beginning, a middle and an end. This movie has a plot, and a whole armload of characters you care about. Many recent movies leave us trying to find someone to root for, often unsuccessfully. In this one, with the exception of the soon-deceased husband, you care about every person. What a twist!

And at the conclusion, there is a wrap-up that explains everything and makes you realize why everyone acted the way they did...although you might have suspected as much over the course of the story.

Penelope Cruz ("Open Your Eyes" and the English version, "Vanilla Sky") is wonderful. Director Pedro Almodovar ("Talk to Her" and "Live Flesh") is absolutely terrific with women, and his cast is comprised almost entirely of women of all ages. Penelope's character is resourceful, loving, hard working, and maternal. She is voluptuous, energetic and practical. When she weeps, her mascara even runs; there's something new! At one point her mother asks, "Has your chest always been so big?"

At one point, she hires a friend who is a prostitute to help her, paying for an entire night, simply because she needs help with some manual labor that must be done by someone who can keep her mouth shut!

As an added bonus for ME, it is in Spanish, which means there are captions, so I had absolutely no trouble getting the dialogue. Whew!

If it isn't playing where you live, put it on your NetFlix list...