talk to her

Talk to Her

Talk to Her is a Spanish movie produced in 2002. Written and directed by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar. The film's themes include the difficulty of communication between the sexes, loneliness and intimacy, and the persistence of love beyond loss.

Benigno ("benign" or "harmless" in Spanish) and Marco cross paths when they attend the same concert dance, only to eventually meet again at a private clinic where Benigno works. There, he is the personal nurse and caregiver for Alicia, a beautiful dance student who lies in a coma, and with whom Benigno has become obsessed. Marco, a journalist and travel writer, is at the clinic to visit his girlfriend Lydia, a famous matador who is also comatose after being gored by a bull. As the men stand vigil over these women, the story unfolds in flashbacks, giving details of the two relationships. Marco leaves Lydia when her previous lover informs him that they had reunited a month before Lydia's accident. He travels to Jordan to write a tourist guide; while there he reads in a newspaper that Lydia has died in her coma.

Meanwhile, Alicia is discovered to be pregnant. Benigno, who believes his relationship with the comatose Alicia is a mutual love affair, is accused of raping her and is sent to prison in Segovia. After Marco returns to Spain and begins trying to help him, he ingests a large quantity of pills to try to put him into a coma, thus reuniting himself with Alicia; but he dies of an overdose. Ironically, Alicia wakes up during or sometime after childbirth. The baby is stillborn, and Alicia begins rehabilitation to recover her walking ability. Marco, who has rented Benigno's apartment, sees her from the window and is thunderstruck; he was unaware that she has come out of the coma. The film ends with Marco, sitting two rows in front of Alicia at a dance concert, turning around and smiling at her for a moment, and then turning back around (the screen lists Marco y Alicia as the next act, implying that the two will become a couple.)

I think that this movie considers one of the best movies in the international Spanish cinema, because the basic foundation of the film is reflecting on ideas inspired by people that cannot reciprocate conversation, parts of Talk can drag on with shades of repetition. And since the setting is often two people talking in a room, there are times when it plays more like theater than film. It's appreciated that Almodovar respects his characters' changing motivations, but some sections end well after the emotional points have been made, which can get particularly exhausting when watching two hours worth of drama,But the atmosphere remains as visually stimulating to watch as the people inhabiting them that draw our attention. These men are fascinating because they are imperfect, emotive, and smart without being wimpy, which is what American directors usually make their male protagonists into in times of crisis. It's also an amusing idea to have a plot that rests on characters that are unresponsive, a wonderful challenge that the veteran filmmaker rises to better than expected. Adding to an already eclectic body of work that supports a positive human spirit through an ensemble journey, Talk to Her is just plain great cinema that we could use more of.