Rating: 
Summary: Lyrical and Breathtaking
Review: If a film could be envisioned as a song, with melody, chorus, mood and harmony, "Talk To Her" would be a supreme example of songwriting at its best. Almodovar's stunning new film is a poignant masterwork that even exceeds his great "All About My Mother" as an emotional tour de force. Incisive and witty, despairing yet brimming with life, this ranks as the director's greatest departure from his canon of crazy characters and slapstick broad humor. Here, a gentle quiet settles over the characters right off the bat, with a dance of death that sets the stage for the pure pathos and ironies that follow. he central characters meet at the outset (but don't, really until later)while watching a ballet, and their lives intertwine in unexpected, yet utterly real ways. To be sure, there's the usual shock-value of Almodovar's unique worldview, where everything seems upside down, and yet always logical, as if all our existences were being played out on screen despite the obvious distances that exist between we the audience and the characters we come to love. And here, unlike in the great majority of his classic films, the filmmaker focuses on men whose lives are utterly up-ended by dramatic encounters with the women they love. There are parts of the film that will take your breath away - a silent film sequence where a shrinking man literally walks into a sleeping woman (a visually stunning interlude that doesn't make much sense when it happens, but ultimately becomes a crucial plot device) and a plaintive wail sung by Celetano Veloso midway through that will literally bring tears to your eyes. The actors are terrific, the dialogue sharp and refreshing, the images visually deep and rich. Segovia's landscapes are metaphors for each man's loneliness while the silence of their respective women (both in comas for most of the movie) is a heartbreaking, nearly deafening noise. Almodovar captures more with simple twists of fate than most directors can manage in an entire film, and "Talk to Her" proves once again that he is a master of cinema - one of the truly great directors of our day. Watch "Talk to Her" without judgement or haste, and suspend everything you've ever known about "Women on the Verge" or "Tie Me Up Tie Me Down" - this is a new ballgame of the first order! A superb, breathtaking work of art!
Rating:
Summary: FILM: TALK TO HER
Review: I JUST SAW THE FILM TONIGHT.
COMPLETELY BLEW MY MIND - BRILLIANT WORK.
PEDRO IS A GENIUS.
THE SOUNDTRACK IS BEAUTIFUL AS WELL.
Rating:
Summary: a rare movie
Review: Almodovar, a director who paints women on a crystal canvas with all their feelings on a troubled dead-end street by delicate colors of hazy dilemmas has done another masterpiece reflecting his improvements in time. Smart camera angles and filming ideas turn the perfectly set story into a "cinema classic". It's very nonsense to talk about the story because the less you know about it, the more shocks you'll face during the developing tragedy of life. The "silent-movie" part is a turning point and a clear message of how men are volunteered to destroy their lifes in moments of weaknesses right before Benigno's unseen intercourse. And displaying all the actresses in his previous movies accompanied by a beautiful music is a fascinating scene like the rest of the movie. This beautiful non-hollywood production which will make you see the values of friendship and love at an unexpected point of view,seems to be my favorite for a very long term.
Rating:
Summary: Talk To Her but pay attention to what HE is showing
Review: What would you do were you one of the most famous Spanish moviemakers ever, have received one Oscar for your latest movie, a prize in Cannes and rave reviews everyewhere? Well, if your name is Pedro Almodóvar, you will deliver another masterpiece and instantaneous classic. Convencionalism has never been the word to define any film from Almodóvar. All of them are unique, and ‘Talk to Her’ makes no exception. Men who cry, a woman who bullfights --everything is unusual in Almodóvar’s world, but, at the same time, simple. This time, instead of telling a story of women, the director brings two men to the central stage, and their beloved women spend most of the time lying in a hospital bed. It all begins when Marco (Darío Gradinetti), a writer, and Benigno (Javier Camara), a nurse, are watching a show. Despite being side by side they don’t notice each other. Later on, life will bring these two men togheter. Benigno works in a hospital as a private nurse for a ballerina (Leonor Watling) who’s been in a comatose for years. Marco’s lover, a female matador, checks in at the same hospital, after being wounded by a bull. Against all odds, the two become friends. Being more experienced in nursing, Benigno tells Marco that if he talks to his beloved while she is sleeping that may help her in the healing process --hence the title. Day after day, they meet at the hospital, and spend time togheter, they even pair up their girls in the balcony for a sunbath. But a twist in the story may jeopardize this friendship. At first this movie seems to be very different from Almodovar’s previous works. And it is. At this time, he is less kitsch, and less hysterical, but still profund and poetic. Women may not play the major roles --as they usually do-- but their universe guides the whole movie. At a point, Benigno says something that only Alomodóvar could conceive: “The women’s brain is a mistery.” “Talk to Her” is Almodóvar at his best, in the apex of his carrer. It is moviemaking at perfection. It is a brainy and heartfelt movie, in times when aliens and explosions tend to rule the screen. Pay attention to a black & white silent little movie that Benigno tells to his ballerina. And keep your ears to open Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso singing during a scene; and for Tom Jobim and Elis Regina’s song Por Toda a Minha Vida. (One last thing: 5 stars are not enough!)
Rating:
Summary: "TALK TO HER": PEDRO ALMODOVAR HAS DONE IT AGAIN!
Review: Universally acclaimed, openly gay and proud Spanish director Pedro Almodovar isn't afraid to shock his audience. When you watch an Almodovar movie, you can almost picture the inimitable movie-maker smiling wickedly while thinking about the audience's reaction when they see his outrageous characters and the improbable situations that those characters find themselves in. In his first feature film, 1980's "Pepi, Luci, Bom", a mousy housewife enters into a sado-masochistic relationship with a lesbian punk rock star, initiated with a "watersports" scene. In "Law of Desire" (1987), my favorite Almodovar movie, we learn that the voluptuous female character Tina used to be a man (!), and had a sex-change operation to please her lover-- who happened to be her own father! And in "Kika" (1993), a prison escapee frenetically rapes the titular heroine, and a dab of the rapist's, uhm... seed, falls from the balcony on to the face of an obnoxious talk show hostess on the street. And so we enter the wild, whacky world of Pedro Almodovar, where the director reigns over a kingdom of fabulously quirky, colorful characters. In Almodovar's movies, let's just say that things happen that, well, just don't happen to ordinary people. Throughout the '80's and early '90's, when characters with any kind of "alternate" sexual identity or orientation were all but invisible in American cinema, Almodovar's movies almost always featured gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and/or transvestite characters. It's no mystery why his movies have been cult favorites in the U.S. for years, especially among gay and lesbian audiences. Sure, there were lots of straight characters in Almodovar's movies as well, but they were no less outrageous. Pedro Almodovar first became well-known to American audiences with 1988's "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" (nominated for "Best Foreign Film" Oscar and Golden Globe; Winner of "Best Foreign Film" by the New York's Critics Circle) and 1989's bondage-flavored love story "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!". In 1999, the filmmaker who made his name in the film world by breaking all the rules earned his most "mainstream" accolades to date with "All About My Mother". Almodovar received no less than 24 international awards for the movie, which received both "Best Foreign Language Film" Oscar and Golden Globe. When he accepted his Oscar, presented by fellow Spanish imports Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, he cemented his stauts in American pop culture when audiences watched an emotional Almodovar consumed in pure joy-- truly a life-affirming sight and an inspiration to future filmmakers. Almodovar's older films, most of them available on VHS or DVD, are musts for all serious GLBT cinema-philes. And for all you trogs out there who wouldn't consider watching a movie with subtitles... well, then you'll just have to learn Spanish. "Talk To Her" ("Hable Con Ella") is a drama with comedic touches. The story is about the friendship that evolves between two men who meet by chance: Benigno (Javier Camara), a young, non-threatening-looking nurse, and Marco (Dario Grandinetti), a rugged-looking writer in his early 40's. Benigno originally notices Marco in the theater, but doesn't yet speak to him. Months later, Marco's girlfriend Lydia (Rosario Flores), a bullfighter, is seriously injured and falls into a coma. She is transported to the clinic where Benigno works. At the clinic, Benigno is taking care of Alicia (Leonor Watling), another young woman who has been in a coma for four years. Through flashbacks, we learn more about the relationship between Marco and Lydia, and we learn about the circumstances in which Benigno wound up caring for Alicia. As the movie progresses, the bond between the two men becomes stronger-- especially when Lydia eventually passes away. It's at this point in the film when the plot takes a VERY strange turn-- which, while jaw-dropping, is believable only because Almodovar has perfectly developed the feelings and the motivations of the characters in "Talk To Her", particularly the two male leads, and then allows the audience into the characters' minds. In addition, the acting by all the major characters is flawless: At face value, the audience thinks that they have everything "figured out", only to slowly see the characters in "Talk To Her" revealed in a more complicated web of human emotions, including joy, love, sadness, and loneliness. Gender and sexual orientation isues are explored too: Benigno is straight, but pretends that he's gay so that he can continue to care for Alicia without suspicion by her father. Lydia is a female bullfighter, used to having to prove herself as an equal in a male-dominated sport. Yet her sensitive, vulnerable side is never neglected by the director. Almodovar doesn't hesitate to show us an axiom of human nature often missing in American cinema: that MEN, like women, can actually have feelings, be vulnerable, and yes, Virginia, even cry. Pedro Almodovar has definitely "matured" as a filmmaker, but he hasn't abandoned his raunchy, racy side. Now more than ever, Almodovar manages to expertly blend barrier-breaking humor with real human emotions and characterizations. In a bold cinematic move, within "Talk To Her" is an outrageous film-within-a-film-- a seven minute, black-and-white, science-fiction-inspired silent film "Amante Menguante" ("Shrinking Lover"), which tells the story of an overweight scientist whose attempt at a diet formula runs amok. He shrinks... and shrinks... and shrinks. Worried about not being able to please his girlfriend, he finds a new way to become, uhm... "intimate" with her... (And I'm not saying another word!) For those of us American cinema-lovers who are starved for original stories, Pedro Almodovar is proof that sometimes, we simply need to look across the ocean. And if you look really closely, you may see Almodovar with a wicked smile... because he knows that with "Talk To Her", he's once again pleased moviegoers.
Rating:
Summary: a piece of art
Review: As a middle easten woman , I ve found this movie stuning, the emotions it showed crosses all borders and languages, quiet few writers would venture in tackling a subject that deals mostly with men feelings ( quiet difficult to analyse) we were conditioned through the history of movie making to see women feelings explained and analysed and men's reactions towards them, this movie changed things upside down, this is the best movie for Almodavar. It is the kind of movies that doesn't leave you intakt after watching it.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome
Review: There's a highly deep message beside, about love, about humanity, about life and dead, about law and rights... It talks about all that difficult and complex subjects in a perfect way, in a extremly emotionnal movie that won't let you as before seeing it. I don't know the words to explain all what I feel after seeing Talk to Her... I was stoned, it killed me for long hours... Amoldovar sends powerfull emotions and feelings through his film. It's one of the best films I've ever seen, and I think it's the best one from Almodovar.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Film
Review: This is really a beautiful film protriating love & human relationships. A beautiful & touching web that links up different people. To many audience, this film may be slightly more 'commercial' than other Almodovar's films. But you will still find the essence of Almodovar's sensibility & passion. A must see film
Rating:
Summary: Great movie!!!!
Review: I think this movies, is in symbols, the intern proces, the emotional and proces of a gay man "in the closett" and how he evolves and goes by all the problems (intern problems, emotional problems) a gay can go In the closset.
Rating:
Summary: Subconscious Speech
Review: Talk to Her (Hable con ella) is Pedro Almodovar's sixteenth film as a director. It is difficult to describe the plot of the film as it travels back and forth in time, ranging from intense moments of psychological insight to an amusing silent film sequence, and I would loath to give away any of the entertaining and twisting plot development so characteristic of Almodovar's films. It primarily focuses on the relationship between two men: the antisocial, sexually ambiguous and lovingly charming Benigno (Javier Camara) and stalwart but emotional sensitive Marco (Dario Grandinetti) as they attend their respective women in permanent sleep at the hospital. A chance encounter at the theatre leads to a later encounter where a seemingly casual friendship grows into a desperate bond. Solitude is the predominant theme of this lively, entertaining and provoking film. There are countless moments for the protagonists to contemplate their life and loves alone. Despite its serious subject matter, Almodovar's masterful handling creates an entertaining story filled with wit and humor. The characters possess compelling quirks and are wonderfully realised in a stunning cast. Amazing performances are given from peripheral characters such as the ballerina instructor, Katerina (Geraldine Chaplin) and the caretaker (Chus Lampreave). Meticulous Almodovar fans will enjoy spotting cameo appearances by past stars from his films. This is an intricate and ceaselessly compelling film that should attract a wide mature audience. 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).
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