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By
DEBORAH NICOL
Director Pedro Almodóvar ("All About my Mother") has choreographed a beautiful
ballet of intertwining characters, both literally and figuratively. This
awards-lavished film begins with a ballet representing the underlying force of
this tale, whose meaning is not apparent until the characters have fully played
their parts. The ballet becomes an omniscient character, providing simplistic
summaries to very complex situations.
The ballet motif is further infused in this film through the professions of the
two leading ladies, a ballerina and a bullfighter. Both are skilled and
disciplined dancers in their own fields, following strict regiments for the sake
of their career. The leading men, however, are driven purely by their passions
for the women. Not only throughout their courtships, but also through the
desperate choices of their careers in order to be near their loved ones.
Javier Cámara is excellent as the obsessed nurse Benigno, who feels perfectly
content to forever care for the ballerina in a coma, Alicia (Leonor Watling). He
had previously spoken only a few anxious words with her, and now shares his
every thought. Dario Grandinetti portrays an emotionally weary Marco, who finds
himself in the same hospital after his bullfighter girlfriend Lydia has also
been put into a state of a coma. Marco, however, can only freely communicate
with her through dreams, and finds himself drawn to the constantly-conversing
Benigno. Rosario Flores is strong and commanding as Lydia, with cracks of human
weaknesses.
As the ballerina's former instructor is describing an upcoming ballet to her
comatose student, she narrates a scene wherein "the male emerges from the
female." Nothing could be further from the truth with Almodóvar's male
characters, whose lives are completely dependent on the need to care for these
women. Man's undying devotion to his beloved is further illustrated through a
whimsical silent film-within-a-film.
The only special feature on this DVD is a
insightful and interesting commentary track by
Almodóvar and actress Geraldine Chaplin (please
note that it is in Spanish, with English
subtitles). There are also a few trailers for
other Columbia films and the film appears in
anamorphic widescreen. |
