Hable Con Ella (2002)

A luscious interplay of the perverse and beauty, Talk to Her challenges the viewer to revisit balance and to reevaluate where that balance should be and what our roles are in bring balance to the world. For those that are tormented or comatose (in the film it is a literal coma, but it represents more the silent or sleeping in society) what should we as individuals do to revive them; what shouldn't we do?

The story is incredibly unique and we should expect nothing less from writer/director Pedro Almodóvar. We see two very different men who are smitten by women who wind up in comas. Their love is at the same time very sincere, but also echoes past loves and several degrees of codependence. The ladies are performers, one a ballerina, the other a matadora or bullfighter. The two are essentially not heard nor understood by the mooning men, but their survival and perhaps the survival of the love these doomed lovers have for them can only be salvaged by the men talking to their sleeping beauties.

Perhaps the most striking thing about this film is how Almodóvar interweaves performance art into the story. It opens and closes with dramatic dance and sandwiches a 10-minute silent film. The bullfighting is also magnificient and graceful.

The film is tragic and hopeful and left me perplexed, again. That is how I prefer films to end.

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