Love is the saddest thing when it goes away, like that Jobim song, Marco says to Lydia. He is describing his last failed relationship, Lydia says she needs to talk to him as he has been talking throughout their conversation, he smiles and agrees to talk later, it never happens.This is a Almodovar film and as the ballet teacher says 'nothing is simple'. We are introduced to Marco and Benigno who are sat together at theatre watching Piña Baush production. Marco starts crying and Benigno stares at him, these two men are the centre of the film.Benigno is a male nurse who works in the coma patients department. There he cares for Alicia a ballet dancer. He talks to her when he cleans her, manicures her nails, cuts her hair and when he massages her. He thinks she is listening to him, it is his version of a relationship.Marco meets Lydia who is a female bullfighter, she has just come out of a relationship, when Marco watches her taming a bull he feels attracted to her. He kills a snake for her and she feels attracted to him. It does lead us to think, is Marco attracted to vulnerable women that he can rescue? Marco goes to her next bullfight but Lydia is gored and ends up in a coma. On visiting her in hospital he and Benigno meet, they immediately become friends.There are the usual touches of Almodovar in the film, the dreamlike sequences and Alberto Iglesias music but there is also scene of the cleaning of patients which is almost scientific as is the close up of Lydia putting on her bullfighter suit. There is also a short film within which Benigno describes to Alicia, which we find out leads to a startling action.This is where the film takes a turn and it leads us to a point of moral dilemma, which you will need to see to judge for yourself. Hats off for the way it is done as it could have gone a different way.I enjoyed the film, it is thought proving and the acting is well done, particularly Javier Camara as Benigno, who is on top form.

Almodovar's movies are generally strange, with eccentric characters, complex pasts, dark secrets, traumas, gripping revelations and dramatic changes. His message is: life is made of surprises, be open-minded, do not judge, appreciate people and events for what they are, not for what you think they are or what you want them to be.On the one hand, "Talk to Her" is more moderate than most of his previous movies: the story makes sense, characters are apparently "normal", provocations are reduced, the music is lovely. On the other hand, what Almodovar tames in plot and roles, he unleashes in form and symbols. It is a peculiar movie, turning values upside down: our thoughts and emotions are puzzled. *** WARNING : CONTAINS SPOILERS ***MALE/FEMALE. Lydia is a bullfighter, a traditionally masculine activity. Benigno is a nurse, a traditionally feminine activity. Marco frequently cries (six times in total). There are homosexual undertones in the friendship between the two men.Almodovar is fascinated by women. This movie is a tribute to them. Alicia and Lydia are the main characters, which is paradoxical since they spend a long moment in a coma.PAST/PRESENT. The movie disintegrates time. It suddenly jumps ahead ("A few months later"); a "present" scene is repeated during a flashback; there is a long flashback ("Four years earlier"), which surprisingly ends as if Benigno were narrating it. The movie inserts five texts indicating periods, but this adds to the confusion since three other flashbacks are not indicated (Marco remembers an evening and a wedding with Lydia, Benigno writes a letter in jail).LIFE/DEATH. The two comatose women seem alive. Alicia is treated like a living person: Benigno talks to her, cuts her hair, massages her and eventually makes love to her. When Benigno tells Marco he saw him crying at the theatre, he puts drops into her eyes: symbolically, she weeps as Marco did. When the two women are next to each other in their armchairs, their heads are tilted so that they seem to watch each other, and Benigno says to Marco: "It seems they are talking about us." After Lydia is hit by the bull, there is a subjective shot of people carrying her: we see what she sees as if she were alive.The flashbacks noted above also "resuscitate" the two women, since we alternatively see them comatose and alive.SANE/INSANE. Marco is reasonable, but achieves nothing: his former girlfriend left him, Lydia was also about to leave him, she dies, his best friend dies. Conversely, Benigno is somewhat deranged but kindly dedicates his life to other people: his mother, Alicia, Marco.GOOD/EVIL. When characters make a good deed, it can have negative effects, and reversely. At the jail, Marco does not tell Benigno that Alicia is alive because he is uncertain how he could react; however, Benigno afterwards commits suicide to reunite with Alicia since he thinks she is still comatose. As an opposite example, Benigno rapes Alicia when she is unconscious, thinking it is a demonstration of love. It is a horrible act… yet because of this Alicia will awaken.BEAUTY/HORROR. Two comatose women, two deaths (Benigno's mother, Lydia), a suicide (Benigno), a rape, a stillborn baby: apparently, it is a sombre movie. Yet it is always decent and delicate. Also, out of these hardships, life emerges and hope blossoms: Alicia awakens and meets Marco.COUPLE/LONELINESS. Relationships are either doomed (Marco separates from two girlfriends), either strange (Benigno loves a woman in a coma). Dialogues within couples are rare. Lydia barely talks to Marco and after her accident, he is unable to speak to her as Benigno urges him to. In the car, Lydia tells Marco they need to discuss after the bullfight. We await an important revelation, especially since we see this scene twice… but Lydia falls into a coma (another bullfighter will reveal the secret).By contrast, emotional experiences are mainly linked to friendship (Marco and Benigno) or individual connection to art. There are five key artistic scenes: three choreographies by celebrated Pina Bausch (one opens the movie and two close it), a fake film, a live song by celebrated Caetano Veloso. Interestingly, three of these five scenes are silent and two are sung: it highlights the superiority of art over articulated speech to communicate emotions and meaning.The movie opens on a choreography where two women blindly move while a man removes chairs so they won't bump into them. This announces the two unconscious women and Benigno taking care of Alicia.At the end, another choreography shows a woman carried in the air by men, while a glamorous song plays. It symbolises resurrection: of the two women shown at the beginning, only one remains alive (Alicia).The movie closes on a simple yet beautiful choreography, where couples slowly dance from left to right on the rhythm of a sensuous music. Their regular and tranquil pace reinstates the linear movement of time that was disturbed during the movie. In the last shot, a woman and a man are left alone on stage. It shows the seduction game will carry on with Alicia and Marco.The fake silent film extract is funny, erotic, incredible, gently caricaturing old cinema style. It reveals the desire of Benigno, who is a virgin, for Alicia. After seeing it and telling her about it, he makes love to her, which will bring her back to life. It also symbolises the desire to return into the mother's womb: a reference to Benigno previously being very close to his mother, permanently taking care of her.The live song is about a love story which, naturally, is desperate.-----"Talk to Her" can be disconcerting: it feels topsy-turvy, it sometimes is bleak, some scenes are intimate physically or emotionally. Yet Almodovar enchants us, once again, by his graceful style, the touching personalities and his vision about art.

it came highly praised. just not the right flow for me. everything took too long and was too weird. I know some people like the foo foo performance art that is shown here but ... she's a ballet mistress says it all. it is nice to see the infrastructure in other societies. I could have also used some sub-titles for the song, too. also, isn't hable con ella talk with her not talk to her (just filling in the lines to pass the review requirement) OK more. each scene was long and involved things that I would say are uninterestingly odd. especially dance kind of things. not the dancing with the stars kind of things, but the DANCE kind of things and took time precious time slow time slow slow

Talk to Her, directed by Pedro Almodovar, is about the friendship between 2 men caring for 2 comatose women. With TTH, go in knowing very little about the plot and brave yourselves. This movie is an emotionally devastating juggernaut full of gut-wrenching story beats, moral ambiguity and meticulously constructed themes. Although TTH takes a little while to get going and certain things feel a bit illogical, once it hits its stride you'll be unable to look away. While the performances are all around excellent, the star of the show is Almodovar. His script is disturbing, haunting, moving and never boring, and the way he constructs the movie visually is brilliant but also ingeniously subtle, meaning he doesn't resort to loads of flashy visuals to tell the story. It's a film which rewards repeat viewings enormously, and the film is so layered and complex that you'll constantly be re-interpreting the film and noticing new details. TTH is a really excellent drama and an unusually intelligent one at that. It shows an auteur at the top of his game and to study and analyse the film is like studying and analysing a great novel. It's a film that's really worth checking out, just don't read any spoilers beforehand. It may not be a thriller, but it will leave you breathless.9/10