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Review: Volver (2006)
I didn't like this movie and I'm kind of surprised to see all of the good reviews for it.
Spoilers.
Story
The story felt like a soap opera, complete with the lack of emotion and consequences to people's actions. Lots of wacky stuff happened, but it was hard for me to see why they were important to the story.
Paula killed Paco and Raimunda helped to dispose of the body. But is that it? Does it remain undiscovered? Do they get away with murder, even if it is in self-defence? Yes, Paco was an ass, but Paula did also see him as a father figure for many years, unless there was a consistent air of creepiness and abuse, in which case, why wasn't that addressed, considering the fact that Raimunda herself was abused? If Paco was a good father figure, what did Raimunda and Paula think of his "sudden" urge to want to molest Paula?
Raimunda was obviously unreliable when it came to her relationship with her mother. She resented her mother for not stopping her father from abusing her. Raimunda also believed her parents were madly in love, probably because her mother didn't stop her father from abusing her. When Irene showed up out of the blue, Raimunda forgave her entirely too easily in my opinion. They had one talk, but never once did I really feel Raimunda's resentment for her mother. Maybe she forgave her long ago, but I still found it hard to believe that she was so ready to have a perfect relationship.
What was the deal with the story line about Raimunda taking on Emilio's restaurant? Emilio gave Raimunda the keys to his restaurant so that she could show it to potential buyers, and as Emilio pointed out, she abused his trust by using it for her own business. But what happens next? Emilio doesn't have to sell the property to her, especially not after what she pulled.
There was the story line with Agustina that just never went anywhere. I think its sole purpose was to reveal to Raimunda that Agustina's mother and Raimunda's father were in an affair. Agustina went on TV to talk about her mom, probably because Raimunda wouldn't give her any leads, but Agustina backed out. Afterwards, Irene moved in, living as a "ghost" to take care of Agustina. The whole story line with Agustina seemed like it wanted to go somewhere, but the rest of the story was holding it back because there was just nowhere for it to go. Agustina said that her relationship with her sister soured even more after the stunt she pulled on TV, and that she envied Sole and Raimunda's relationship, but were Sole and Raimunda ever that tight? I don't think so.
There were just no consequences to any actions. Raimunda did so much shady stuff, and yes, in some cases, she had no choice, but in that case, why do I care about this story?
I also couldn't get a feel for any of the characters. They were all doing things, but I never really felt like any of them had feelings or emotions, just urges to do things that didn't even necessarily flesh them out as characters. That may have been due to the writing, as the characters rarely had fleshed out conversations and were always just doing things. Or, maybe it was due to the acting.
So overall, the story was disappointing to me.
Production
The acting was so-so. As I mentioned, I didn't really like any of the characters, and I don't know how much of that was due to the fact that the actors were constrained by the script, and how much of it was the acting themselves. I never really felt any emotion from the characters. They were just doing things, without showing me how they felt about what they were doing. It just felt like they were following natural urges without having thoughts on whether or not they wanted to.
I also didn't like the set design and costumes. It felt kind of campy and tacky? I know this is a movie from 2006, but I don't that the actual clothing itself is the issue, but just the strange combination of outfits assigned to each character. Raimunda was a working woman but she was always dressed up to the nines. Maybe she was the kind of woman who liked living beyond her means. But in the beginning, after we found out that Paco lost his job, Raimunda said that since they were a poor family, they had to live like one, so I didn't think she was the kind of woman who was so impractical.
The cinematography was not my favourite. As I mentioned, I didn't love the costumes and set, but the cinematography didn't really do much to help that. I was already getting huge soap opera vibes from this movie and some of the editing in this movie was in line with that, with some very sudden cuts.
I tried to look up some discussions on this movie to see what I was missing from this director Almodovar, and I'm wondering if most of it is cultural. Some comments have acknowledged the weaknesses of Volver, including the fact that the lighter and heavier aspects of the story clash and not in a way that is satisfying.
Characters
Raimunda
Raimunda was the main point of view character and I think she was supposed to be an unreliable narrator. However, she didn't show enough emotion for me to understand her as an unreliable narrator.
Raimunda was insistent that her parents were madly in love and perhaps that was her way of justifying why her mother didn't stop her father from abusing her. But her complicated emotions about her mother are swept under the rug, as the moment that Irene shows up, they reconcile completely and fully. They are a loving mother and daughter to the point that Raimunda wants to tell her all of her secrets, even things she wouldn't tell Sole.
Raimunda had her father's child, which resulted in Paula, but she was with Paco and he raised Paula as her own. Obviously when she found out about Paco coming onto Paula, Raimunda had no sympathy for him. Was their marriage already falling apart before that though? Were they already in a rough position before Paco lost his job? Considering the parallels, I just find it a wasted opportunity that the story didn't delve into Raimunda's relationship with Paco in order to give us more on Raimunda's relationship with her parents.
As I mentioned, nothing that Raimunda did ever had consequences. She and Paula technically committed a crime, but they're likely not going to pay for it. Raimunda abused Emilio's trust by using his restaurant, but we don't know what will come of their relationship, both friendship and business. When Raimunda asked her friend to help dispose of Paco's body, the friend was not happy because they were worried about doing something illegal and being deported. The friend had no choice but to following along and take the money as they were already on the way, but we don't know if that friendship becomes rocky afterwards.
Agustina asked Raimunda to find out more about her mother for her, but Raimunda never did anything. Though Agustina did make a wrong move by going on TV, and apologizing to Raimunda and Sole about it afterwards, I still feel like it was a bit strange that Raimunda didn't do a single thing to help Agustina. Raimunda didn't even necessarily have to look for her mother (which at this point she was sure was a ghost). She could've done other investigative work, for a lifelong friend and someone who was looking after her beloved Aunt Paula.
As we see here, Raimunda did a lot of things that she didn't answer for. The writing didn't really delve into her motivations or feelings much, so the only thing that I could assume about Raimunda was that she'd done everything out of selfishness. She saw opportunities and she took them, but because she doesn't face the consequences, she continues to be bold.
I hesitate to even say that I dislike Raimunda because I just didn't have enough information about her to even see her as a character. She was just so blank.
Soledad
Sole was Raimunda's sister. She was the more practical sister I guess. She was the one who Irene first showed herself to. I get the sense that Sole was supposed to be the connection between Raimunda and her family as Raimunda was seen as the "difficult" daughter.
But like all the other characters in this movie, I struggled to see Sole as a character. I didn't feel that she had any motivations other than to just go with the flow. She welcomed her mother into her life initially because she thought she was a ghost and she was just going to help her so that she'd be able to pass peacefully. But when did she go from believing she was a ghost to understanding that she was real?
I also felt that Sole's actress wasn't very expressive. I had a hard time understanding how she was feeling a lot of the time.
Irene
Irene was another character along the lines of Raimunda. Raimunda resented her for not protecting her against her husband. Irene said that she showed up because she wanted to ask Raimunda forgiveness and that even if she was a ghost, she'd still come back to ask for it. But what did Irene actually do to ask for forgiveness?
When Raimunda was singing, Irene seemed really proud of her daughter, but in a way that seemed unnatural. Raimunda had trained her to enter a local singing competition, but other than that it seemed they were estranged as Raimunda was sent to live with Aunt Paula.
I just feel like Irene was getting all of the benefits of being a mother without having to do a lot of the difficult work.
Paula
Paula was Raimunda's daughter, and technically her sister as well.
She stabbed Paco when he came on to her. However, Paula's attitude for the rest of the movie was oddly nonchalant. She'd seen Paco as her father her entire life. I'd think that his attempt to abuse her and him saying that they weren't related should've rattled her more than it did. It wasn't until Raimunda admitted that Paula even believed that Paco wasn't her father. It's just that after Paula stabbed Paco, she treated him like a guy and not someone she called father her whole life.
Paula also easily accepted the fact that her grandmother was alive. I feel like the director copped out when they didn't show us the first meeting between them. When we first saw them together, they were already acquainted as grandmother and granddaughter, and I think it would've been worth it to see how Paula came to accept the her grandmother was alive.
There were also times when Paula was shown to be caring of her mother, but they were forced. Her grandmother told Paula that she should love her mother extra hard because she didn't get to, and that prompted Paula to give her mother a big hug and a kiss when she came to pick her up, which was out of character.
Aunt Paula
Aunt Paula had taken care of Raimunda so that was why she was closer to her. However, Raimunda couldn't attend the funeral because she had to take care of Paco's corpse and because the film crew was coming around.
Considering how much Raimunda claimed to care about Aunt Paula, shouldn't Aunt Paula's death have hit her harder? At the beginning of the movie, Raimunda was wracking her brain thinking of how she could better take care of Aunt Paula, and she didn't even shed a tear throughout the entire process.
Paco
Paco's character was kind of one-dimensional. I think the movie wanted us to think that he was a total douchebag and a creep, which they did, and he was, but it all happened so suddenly. Before we first saw Paco on screen, there wasn't much to hint to us that Paula and Raimunda were uncomfortable around Paco.
When we first saw Paco, he was eyeing up Paula, which was creepy, but how long had this happening? And when he revealed that he lost his job, Raimunda was angry, but was this a recurring problem?
I just felt like a lot of Paco's actions escalated very quickly.
Agustina
Agustina was a neighbour of Aunt Paula's and a childhood friend of Raimunda and Sole. She was Raimunda and Sole's connection to the village, since they'd moved to Madrid and she'd stayed there.
Agustina was diagnosed with terminal cancer and before she died, she wanted to know what happened to her mother. She felt that Raimunda would know because their parents were having an affair, but Raimunda reacted poorly. Agustina even brought up the fact that Irene would talk about how Raimunda treated her so poorly, which was a revelation to me as the viewer, but this never came back to be tackled when Raimunda and Irene reconciled.
Instead, Agustina went to her sister, who worked for a variety show, to appeal for information about her mother, but she walked out after she realized she'd be uncomfortable talking about the personal affairs of people close to her. This was a lapse in judgment, and Agustina apologized to Raimunda and Sole, though it pushed Agustina and her sister Brigida further apart.
Though it wasn't a good idea to go on TV, I still felt that Agustina was being hung out to dry by Raimunda. She'd been taking care of Aunt Paula all these years and they were even childhood friends. Raimunda couldn't even help her with one wish before she died?
Raimunda would live her days out in her own home, being taken care of by Irene, whom she believed was a ghost.
Themes
Airing dirty laundry
There was a theme of not airing out one's dirty laundry in front of other people. This was the case when Agustina went on TV only to realize she didn't want to. At the end of the film, Irene also agreed with Agustina that there wasn't a need to air out the dirty laundry.
That was kind of in line with the whole movie wherein all of the characters who do shady stuff don't answer for it!! Irene didn't stand up for her daughter nor did she handle her family affairs properly, so of course she wouldn't want her dirty laundry to be aired.
Raimunda did tons of shady things, from hiding a corpse to letting down a close family friend, and yet her life carried on, even better than it was before.
Overall
I didn't really like this movie. I'm not really sure where all of the accolades are coming from, especially when it comes to the audience reviews and the praises for all of the acting. As far as I could see, the characters seemed to lack any personal drive and are just going with the flow or acting on instinctive urges. Nobody deals with the consequences of their actions, so it's hard to see how our characters handle challenges. This movie really just felt like a soap opera :/
Spoilers.
Story
The story felt like a soap opera, complete with the lack of emotion and consequences to people's actions. Lots of wacky stuff happened, but it was hard for me to see why they were important to the story.
Paula killed Paco and Raimunda helped to dispose of the body. But is that it? Does it remain undiscovered? Do they get away with murder, even if it is in self-defence? Yes, Paco was an ass, but Paula did also see him as a father figure for many years, unless there was a consistent air of creepiness and abuse, in which case, why wasn't that addressed, considering the fact that Raimunda herself was abused? If Paco was a good father figure, what did Raimunda and Paula think of his "sudden" urge to want to molest Paula?
Raimunda was obviously unreliable when it came to her relationship with her mother. She resented her mother for not stopping her father from abusing her. Raimunda also believed her parents were madly in love, probably because her mother didn't stop her father from abusing her. When Irene showed up out of the blue, Raimunda forgave her entirely too easily in my opinion. They had one talk, but never once did I really feel Raimunda's resentment for her mother. Maybe she forgave her long ago, but I still found it hard to believe that she was so ready to have a perfect relationship.
What was the deal with the story line about Raimunda taking on Emilio's restaurant? Emilio gave Raimunda the keys to his restaurant so that she could show it to potential buyers, and as Emilio pointed out, she abused his trust by using it for her own business. But what happens next? Emilio doesn't have to sell the property to her, especially not after what she pulled.
There was the story line with Agustina that just never went anywhere. I think its sole purpose was to reveal to Raimunda that Agustina's mother and Raimunda's father were in an affair. Agustina went on TV to talk about her mom, probably because Raimunda wouldn't give her any leads, but Agustina backed out. Afterwards, Irene moved in, living as a "ghost" to take care of Agustina. The whole story line with Agustina seemed like it wanted to go somewhere, but the rest of the story was holding it back because there was just nowhere for it to go. Agustina said that her relationship with her sister soured even more after the stunt she pulled on TV, and that she envied Sole and Raimunda's relationship, but were Sole and Raimunda ever that tight? I don't think so.
There were just no consequences to any actions. Raimunda did so much shady stuff, and yes, in some cases, she had no choice, but in that case, why do I care about this story?
I also couldn't get a feel for any of the characters. They were all doing things, but I never really felt like any of them had feelings or emotions, just urges to do things that didn't even necessarily flesh them out as characters. That may have been due to the writing, as the characters rarely had fleshed out conversations and were always just doing things. Or, maybe it was due to the acting.
So overall, the story was disappointing to me.
Production
The acting was so-so. As I mentioned, I didn't really like any of the characters, and I don't know how much of that was due to the fact that the actors were constrained by the script, and how much of it was the acting themselves. I never really felt any emotion from the characters. They were just doing things, without showing me how they felt about what they were doing. It just felt like they were following natural urges without having thoughts on whether or not they wanted to.
I also didn't like the set design and costumes. It felt kind of campy and tacky? I know this is a movie from 2006, but I don't that the actual clothing itself is the issue, but just the strange combination of outfits assigned to each character. Raimunda was a working woman but she was always dressed up to the nines. Maybe she was the kind of woman who liked living beyond her means. But in the beginning, after we found out that Paco lost his job, Raimunda said that since they were a poor family, they had to live like one, so I didn't think she was the kind of woman who was so impractical.
The cinematography was not my favourite. As I mentioned, I didn't love the costumes and set, but the cinematography didn't really do much to help that. I was already getting huge soap opera vibes from this movie and some of the editing in this movie was in line with that, with some very sudden cuts.
I tried to look up some discussions on this movie to see what I was missing from this director Almodovar, and I'm wondering if most of it is cultural. Some comments have acknowledged the weaknesses of Volver, including the fact that the lighter and heavier aspects of the story clash and not in a way that is satisfying.
Characters
Raimunda
Raimunda was the main point of view character and I think she was supposed to be an unreliable narrator. However, she didn't show enough emotion for me to understand her as an unreliable narrator.
Raimunda was insistent that her parents were madly in love and perhaps that was her way of justifying why her mother didn't stop her father from abusing her. But her complicated emotions about her mother are swept under the rug, as the moment that Irene shows up, they reconcile completely and fully. They are a loving mother and daughter to the point that Raimunda wants to tell her all of her secrets, even things she wouldn't tell Sole.
Raimunda had her father's child, which resulted in Paula, but she was with Paco and he raised Paula as her own. Obviously when she found out about Paco coming onto Paula, Raimunda had no sympathy for him. Was their marriage already falling apart before that though? Were they already in a rough position before Paco lost his job? Considering the parallels, I just find it a wasted opportunity that the story didn't delve into Raimunda's relationship with Paco in order to give us more on Raimunda's relationship with her parents.
As I mentioned, nothing that Raimunda did ever had consequences. She and Paula technically committed a crime, but they're likely not going to pay for it. Raimunda abused Emilio's trust by using his restaurant, but we don't know what will come of their relationship, both friendship and business. When Raimunda asked her friend to help dispose of Paco's body, the friend was not happy because they were worried about doing something illegal and being deported. The friend had no choice but to following along and take the money as they were already on the way, but we don't know if that friendship becomes rocky afterwards.
Agustina asked Raimunda to find out more about her mother for her, but Raimunda never did anything. Though Agustina did make a wrong move by going on TV, and apologizing to Raimunda and Sole about it afterwards, I still feel like it was a bit strange that Raimunda didn't do a single thing to help Agustina. Raimunda didn't even necessarily have to look for her mother (which at this point she was sure was a ghost). She could've done other investigative work, for a lifelong friend and someone who was looking after her beloved Aunt Paula.
As we see here, Raimunda did a lot of things that she didn't answer for. The writing didn't really delve into her motivations or feelings much, so the only thing that I could assume about Raimunda was that she'd done everything out of selfishness. She saw opportunities and she took them, but because she doesn't face the consequences, she continues to be bold.
I hesitate to even say that I dislike Raimunda because I just didn't have enough information about her to even see her as a character. She was just so blank.
Soledad
Sole was Raimunda's sister. She was the more practical sister I guess. She was the one who Irene first showed herself to. I get the sense that Sole was supposed to be the connection between Raimunda and her family as Raimunda was seen as the "difficult" daughter.
But like all the other characters in this movie, I struggled to see Sole as a character. I didn't feel that she had any motivations other than to just go with the flow. She welcomed her mother into her life initially because she thought she was a ghost and she was just going to help her so that she'd be able to pass peacefully. But when did she go from believing she was a ghost to understanding that she was real?
I also felt that Sole's actress wasn't very expressive. I had a hard time understanding how she was feeling a lot of the time.
Irene
Irene was another character along the lines of Raimunda. Raimunda resented her for not protecting her against her husband. Irene said that she showed up because she wanted to ask Raimunda forgiveness and that even if she was a ghost, she'd still come back to ask for it. But what did Irene actually do to ask for forgiveness?
When Raimunda was singing, Irene seemed really proud of her daughter, but in a way that seemed unnatural. Raimunda had trained her to enter a local singing competition, but other than that it seemed they were estranged as Raimunda was sent to live with Aunt Paula.
I just feel like Irene was getting all of the benefits of being a mother without having to do a lot of the difficult work.
Paula
Paula was Raimunda's daughter, and technically her sister as well.
She stabbed Paco when he came on to her. However, Paula's attitude for the rest of the movie was oddly nonchalant. She'd seen Paco as her father her entire life. I'd think that his attempt to abuse her and him saying that they weren't related should've rattled her more than it did. It wasn't until Raimunda admitted that Paula even believed that Paco wasn't her father. It's just that after Paula stabbed Paco, she treated him like a guy and not someone she called father her whole life.
Paula also easily accepted the fact that her grandmother was alive. I feel like the director copped out when they didn't show us the first meeting between them. When we first saw them together, they were already acquainted as grandmother and granddaughter, and I think it would've been worth it to see how Paula came to accept the her grandmother was alive.
There were also times when Paula was shown to be caring of her mother, but they were forced. Her grandmother told Paula that she should love her mother extra hard because she didn't get to, and that prompted Paula to give her mother a big hug and a kiss when she came to pick her up, which was out of character.
Aunt Paula
Aunt Paula had taken care of Raimunda so that was why she was closer to her. However, Raimunda couldn't attend the funeral because she had to take care of Paco's corpse and because the film crew was coming around.
Considering how much Raimunda claimed to care about Aunt Paula, shouldn't Aunt Paula's death have hit her harder? At the beginning of the movie, Raimunda was wracking her brain thinking of how she could better take care of Aunt Paula, and she didn't even shed a tear throughout the entire process.
Paco
Paco's character was kind of one-dimensional. I think the movie wanted us to think that he was a total douchebag and a creep, which they did, and he was, but it all happened so suddenly. Before we first saw Paco on screen, there wasn't much to hint to us that Paula and Raimunda were uncomfortable around Paco.
When we first saw Paco, he was eyeing up Paula, which was creepy, but how long had this happening? And when he revealed that he lost his job, Raimunda was angry, but was this a recurring problem?
I just felt like a lot of Paco's actions escalated very quickly.
Agustina
Agustina was a neighbour of Aunt Paula's and a childhood friend of Raimunda and Sole. She was Raimunda and Sole's connection to the village, since they'd moved to Madrid and she'd stayed there.
Agustina was diagnosed with terminal cancer and before she died, she wanted to know what happened to her mother. She felt that Raimunda would know because their parents were having an affair, but Raimunda reacted poorly. Agustina even brought up the fact that Irene would talk about how Raimunda treated her so poorly, which was a revelation to me as the viewer, but this never came back to be tackled when Raimunda and Irene reconciled.
Instead, Agustina went to her sister, who worked for a variety show, to appeal for information about her mother, but she walked out after she realized she'd be uncomfortable talking about the personal affairs of people close to her. This was a lapse in judgment, and Agustina apologized to Raimunda and Sole, though it pushed Agustina and her sister Brigida further apart.
Though it wasn't a good idea to go on TV, I still felt that Agustina was being hung out to dry by Raimunda. She'd been taking care of Aunt Paula all these years and they were even childhood friends. Raimunda couldn't even help her with one wish before she died?
Raimunda would live her days out in her own home, being taken care of by Irene, whom she believed was a ghost.
Themes
Airing dirty laundry
There was a theme of not airing out one's dirty laundry in front of other people. This was the case when Agustina went on TV only to realize she didn't want to. At the end of the film, Irene also agreed with Agustina that there wasn't a need to air out the dirty laundry.
That was kind of in line with the whole movie wherein all of the characters who do shady stuff don't answer for it!! Irene didn't stand up for her daughter nor did she handle her family affairs properly, so of course she wouldn't want her dirty laundry to be aired.
Raimunda did tons of shady things, from hiding a corpse to letting down a close family friend, and yet her life carried on, even better than it was before.
Overall
I didn't really like this movie. I'm not really sure where all of the accolades are coming from, especially when it comes to the audience reviews and the praises for all of the acting. As far as I could see, the characters seemed to lack any personal drive and are just going with the flow or acting on instinctive urges. Nobody deals with the consequences of their actions, so it's hard to see how our characters handle challenges. This movie really just felt like a soap opera :/