In a small village outside of Madrid, the screen displays a very soft and pretty palette for such a dark and hard story. Volver is a lyric from a song Raimunda’s mother used to sing to her before she died. Now poor Raimunda (Penelope Cruz) has to live the mistakes her mother (Carmen Maura) didn’t fix during her life. That is until her mother decides to appear as a ghost and fix them for her. Like an abstract painting that we must adapt to relate to, the beauty of this movie is that it makes its own rules with ghosts, relationships and secrets. Our American ghosts are usually spooky, whereas Maura’s character is as comical as the non-stop kissing and pecking on the cheeks. Cruz is clearly at home – dazzling in this role – a movie splashed with tones of red (think “The Sixth Sense.”) Blood, red tights, red peppers, red lipstick – it’s a reflective of “women troubles” as Cruz says to someone questioning a blood stain on her neck. THREE TIARAS
