Rating: 
Summary: Stupendous
Review: I've seen several Pedro Almodovar films and been amazed by his amazing ability behind the camera and also the development of the stories around his characters. The greatest mark of a director, of good film is when people don't appear to be acting but instead as if the watcher feels like they're watching someones life unfold.Lydia (Rosario Florees) a female bullfighter, gets mauled and this leaves her in a coma. Her new boyfriend Mauricio losyti n what to do, stays with her though he knows her situation may be terminal. Then he accidentally spots a nurse, Benigno, taking care of Alicia, in a coma as well. There's a game of attarction between the four lead people in this film because Mauricio and Benigno are so genuinely in love with the women and eventually they literally fall in love with the other's capacity to love. When confronted about his sexuality, Benigno opts to be homosexual so that Alicia's father, a psychiatrist he saw once while secretly stalking Alicia, won't suspect him as the obsessive he so obviously is. THe movie, set up literally in neurosis and to some degree psychosis, lensed through love goes even further as Alicia, literally pops up, pregnant. And Benigno's loving devotion starts looking a little too devoted. Eventually mauricio discovers that Lydia is "cheating" on him. She reunited with a lover the day of her mauling who now sits by her side, so he's been replaced. The funniest, most warped scenes are when Lydia and Alicia are propped up in chairs next to each other for visits and sunbathing and Mauricio and Benigno talk both over them and to them. Benigno has perfected the art of
"hearing" Alicia and tries to train Mauricio until scandal erupts with the pregnancy.
Mauricio's devotion to Benigno is touching and even Benigno explains that in order to be visited in prison he had to tell the officials that Mauricio is his lover. Their sympathy deepens into both understanding and friendship in a way that we see Benigno's sexuality has just never been explored by a living person and Mauricio's capacity to love is greater than his masculine ego about his sexuality. To some degree there's this huge question of whether or not this whole mess has co me about to bring the two men together, one man who's always wanted to be devoted to someone living but has settled for his dying mother and then the comatose Alicia, people who can't reject him until he finds someone who loves him, whackiness and all.
I think there comes a point when we all love someone who we can love, regardless of gender, and the body no longer matters. There's a high degree of spirtuality at play in this movie, particularly about love and simply loving someone, being availible to loving someone. There's a couple of twists in the last third of the movie that veer sharply from where this seems like it may go and begins a whole new chapter, a new story between Mauricio and Alicia, which is startling and at the same time suggests that everything before was an attempt to get to that point.
A stupendous film because of a great story, as the best movies always are.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Genius ...
Review: Just like most (if not ALL) Pedro Almodovar's movies this AGAIN is a work of art. Beautifully shot with an excellent cast (Dario Grandinetti is BRILLIANT), original storytelling with a twist (the silent movie part is genius and very funny), extremely moving. Things that most US mainstream movies miss. Talk To Her is a story about the friendship between two men, about loneliness and the long convalescence of the wounds provoked by passion. It is also a film about incommunication between couples, and about communication. About cinema as a subject of conversation. About how monologues before a silent person can be an effective form of dialogue. About silence as "eloquence of the body", about film as an ideal vehicle in relationships between people, about how a film told in words can bring time to a standstill and install itself in the lives of the person telling it and the person listening.
Talk To Her is a film about the joy of narration and about words as a weapon against solitude, disease, death and madness. It is also a film about madness, about a type of madness so close to tenderness and common sense that it does not diverge from normality. By the way, over here (Europe) Mr. Almodovar is considered as a GOD.
Rating:
Summary: Another Almodovar gem... with a Caetano Veloso cameo!
Review: One of Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's most skillfully directed, richly textured films. He's still exploring uncomfortable, unconventional behavior, and taken on its surface level, the plot may creep a lot of people out, but you gotta admire the sheer filmmaking beauty of it all, and the classiness of a European perspective that includes dancer Pina Bausch alongside a moody female toreador. For me, one of the most pleasant twists was Almodovar's inclusion of a healthy dose of the best music from Brazil, including a glorious live version of "Cucurrucucu Paloma" by Caetano Veloso... as charming and transcendent a performance as you could ever ask for. Okay, so now a bunch of people are wondering which Caetano albums to buy that sound similar in tone to that song. Off the top of my head, I'd recommend acoustically-oriented records such as 1975's "Coisa" and "Joia," and particularly the more recent European concert album, "Omaggio A Federico E Guilietta," which features Caetano playing with pretty much the same ensemble as seen in the film, and has the same subtle cultural spendor. It also features avant-pop cellist Jacques Morelenbaum, who has been Caetano's bandleader for the last decade or so. They're all favorites of mine, and hopefully of your's as well!
Rating:
Summary: The art of Almodovar: extreeeemely adicting
Review: You could spend hours on end talking about Almodovar's art, the result of a work that has evolved from some more-sexually loaded works back in the seventies and eighties to his more mature and hilarious works from the past decade. Starting with "La Flor de mi Secreto" in 1995, you start to see a trend in his work. With the help of some of today's greatest Spanish-speaking stars, such as Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cecilia Roth and this time around, the brilliant Argentinian star from "El Lado Oscuro del Corazon" Darío Grandinetti, charming Leonor Watling, the sexy Spanish singer Rosario Flores and most-peculiar Javier Cámara, Almodovar is on a trip to the unknown to tell the stories flowing from his heart, from his childhood, his forbidden places... The plot was beautifully summed up by a reviewer on another site with these words: "Marco [Grandinetti] is Sancho to Benigno's [Cámara's] Quixote, and as Benigno's hopes for his patient [he plays a male nurse] become fantasies, Marco tries to inject reality." As hipnotizing the movie can result there's more to it than a brilliant storyline: direction is impeccable (as usual with Almodovar), filled with details to embellish the story; the music is... well, what else can be said about Alberto Iglesias, Almodovar's long time scorer? This is his most brilliant accomplishment so far! The best advise I can give you is, get up, grab your keys and shoot for a theater that is playing it: you will laugh, you will cry and you will come back home craving for more. Be in the look for his next work, "La Mala Educacion" where he brings along Gael García Bernal, the young star from "Amores Perros" and "Y Tu Mama Tambien". This is what happens with Almodovar: once you get started with his movies, you can't get enough of them. You need more!
Rating:
Summary: A MASTERPIECE
Review: By now - after reading the other reviews - you should know the plot and characters of TALK TO HER by heart. I won't bore you by repeating them here. See this film if you cherish screenplays, direction, ensemble acting, cinematography, editing, and music that are no less than brilliant. It is Almodovar's best. He has composed a masterpiece that immensely satisfies both one's left and right brains. My strongest recommendation is that TALK TO HER is, along with AFTER LIFE, one of my favorite films about life.
Rating: 
Summary: touching and unexpected
Review: who whould have guessed that a director could have made a movie about two men falling in love with women in comas so interesting. this was an elegant play of tentions, emotion, and confusion. the script had the sumptous quality of a Delacroix painting and the irony of a Maria Callas Dance mix.
Rating:
Summary: Makes you think
Review: In "Talk to her" Benigno is the fatty, strange, effeminate nurse in charge of taking care of Alicia, who is in a coma for the last four years. Marco is the reporter who falls in love with Lidia, the "torera" who got struck by a bull and is also in a coma. Benigno and Marco meet for the first time watching a play. Benigno notices how emotive Marco is, and comments the fact with a fellow nurse. Months later, they meet again in the hospital where Alicia and Lidia are interned, and start a friendship based on the fate of the two women. Even if he's emotive, Marco can't understand why Beningno constantly talks to Alicia, even if she is not able to listen. Marco won't talk to Lidia, not even when Beningno says: "Talk to her. It will do you both good." This is a good film, but, based on all the hype, and on what everybody else is saying about "Talk to her", I though it was going to be better. Almodovar once again concentrates the main theme of his movie on women, and they are the strongest part of the story, even being both in a coma. Everything revolves around them. "Talk to her" is a big drama, with some funny moments, but a big undisguised drama nonetheless. There are no revolutionary direction techniques, the acting is good, but plain, and the sound score is boring. The best thing about "Hable con ella" is that you leave the movie in a "thinking mood". You keep thinking about what would you do if you were Benigno, or Marco; you keep wondering if what they have done is right, under the circumstances, or just plainly condemnable. I thing Almodovar has made better films than this one, like "Carne tremula" (Live flesh) or "Ata-me" (Tie me up, tie me down). Grade 8.5/10 (barely made 5 stars)
Rating:
Summary: hable con ella
Review: The plot of the new Pedro Almodovar film, "Talk to Her," sounds a lot like the setup for a really long, really bad joke. It's about a male nurse, a writer, a ballerina and a bullfighter named Lydia, and the ballerina and the bullfighter are both in a coma during much of the movie. But "Talk to Her," although it has an unusual premise and moments of great humor, is not a long, bad joke; it is, in fact, one of the most moving and satisfying films of the last year. The nurse, Benigno (Javier Camara), is pudgy, plain-faced and perhaps a little too friendly to fully trust. Day after day, he carefully dotes on Alicia (Leonor Watling), a dancer who was thrown into a coma by a car accident. In a bed down the hospital hall, Lydia - who has been critically injured by a bull - is watched by a travel writer, Marco (Dario Grandinetti). Marco loves Lydia but as her condition fails to improve, his sense of despair increases. "Talk to her," advises Benigno as the two form an awkward friendship. "Her brain has been turned off," Marco tells him. "How are you so sure?" asks Benigno. "A woman's brain is a mystery, and in this state even more so." But Benigno often has the ability to sound wiser than he actually is, and Marco's realization of this fact makes up much of the film's drama. Spanish director Almodovar (who, on Tuesday, was nominated for an Oscar for directing "Talk to Her") loves to build movies from disparate elements: his plots, structure and style often seem borrowed from soap operas and 1950s melodramas, but his characters, and the situations they find themselves in, are decidedly edgier stuff. His best known film, "Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down," is at heart an old-fashioned romance which just happens to occur between an escaped mental patient and an adult film star; the mother in "All About My Mother" (for which Almodovar won the 2000 Oscar for best foreign film) is actually a drag queen who has fathered a child with a nun. "Talk to Her," while slightly tamer, is still a racy outing, and it isn't going to be everybody's cup of tea. But moviegoers who are looking for an unconventional story and don't mind flawed characters will enjoy some amazing scenes: A lovely, musical dream sequence; a series of shots in which Marco helps Lydia into her bullfighter's outfit; a bizarre and severely bawdy silent film imagined by Benigno; and a surprisingly happy ending that seems to come out of nowhere but, in retrospect, makes perfect sense. Prior to making this film, Almodovar lobbied to direct an adaptation of Michael Cunningham's novel, "The Hours," and was rejected. Clearly, the book remains on his mind - a copy of it can be seen on Marco's bedside table. As fate would have it, on Oscar night Almodovar will be competing against Stephen Daldry, the director who eventually wound up bringing "The Hours" to the screen. It's ironic that, from Almodovar's frustration, came "Talk to Her," a movie that's not only better than "The Hours" but one of the best movies the gifted director has ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Intoxicating...Haunting...Perfect
Review: If you haven't seen Talk To Her yet and come across an analysis of the film, please avoid reading it. This is the kind of film that needs to be experienced. When the cinema lights turned on, no one in the audience stirred for a good amount of time. I was totally intoxicated by the film's pure magic and passion. Walking out of the cinema, nothing felt or looked the same ever again. I thought that Almodovar could never top All About My Mother but now I believe that he did. Talk To Her is the miracle of filmmaking. It's 112 minutes of life. I don't think I could see another film after this for a very long time. It's too perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Emotional, Powerful, Real!
Review: This is one bizarre, unique, and unforgettable film. The plot is fairly simple, yet richly engrossing: Two men are in love with women who can't hear them; each woman is in a coma, and their stories told in flashback. Marco (Dario Grandinetti), a journalist, falls hard for a lady bullfighter, Lydia (Rosario Flores, so alive she seems to leap off the screen), who is gored in the ring. At the hospital where Lydia lies comatose, Marco meets Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who takes special care of Alicia (Leonor Watling), a gorgeous ballerina who fell into a coma after a car accident four years earlier. It's the unlikely friendship between these two men that gives the movie focus. Benigno tells Marco that talk is essential to these motionless women. Maybe, inside, they hear and understand. When one of the women becomes the victim of a crime, the film lurches into dark corners of the mind that Almod-var navigates with uncanny skill and passionate heart. The actors are outstanding, illuminating four different views of loneliness. The film moves slowly and deliberately, remaining captivating from the moving dance performance at the beginning to the devastating conclusion. Rich in detail, and ingenius in its excecution, this is definitely one of the most unique films of the year. A definite must-see for anyone even remotely serious about movies.
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