Up until even Almodóvar's Oscar-winning Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother), his last feature before Hable con ella (Talk to Her) I felt that either one loved or hated Almodóvar's films. Hable con ella changes this: although it surely classifies as a "typical" Almodóvar film, it is at the same time a much more accessible film than all of his previous efforts. The story is linearly coherent, the characters seem more real, the drama is more dramatic and the comedy is really very funny. The story is not without a very interesting premise that can keep you discussing this film and what really happened for days on end with other who have seen this film. It is a thriller, a moral drama, a comedy, a film about silent (because comatose) women that sometimes say more than the talkative men at their bedsides.

 

Hable con ella (which translates as "talk to her" and "talk with her") revolves around the strange friendship between the nurse Benigno (Javier Cámara) and the journalist Marco (Darío Grandinetti) who by accident -- or maybe not -- find themselves in the same situation: Benigno, in his quality as a nurse, has to care for the ballet dancer Alicia (Leonor Watling) who was in a car accident, or so we have been told, and is now in a coma, while Marco attends to his newfound girlfriend Lydia (Rosario Flores), who has been attacked by bull whilst performing as a matador in the bull's ring.

 

Almodóvar is very interested in sexuality in all its devious forms, and his films frequently feature transvestites and transsexuals. Hable con ella does not so obviously present males and females and all that lies in between. The (at first sight) frigid and feminine Benigno is perhaps gay, he himself is not sure. But as the film develops, it becomes clear that he seems to care very much for Alicia and might even be in love with her. Alicia was a ballet dancer and really a very feminine woman; she does not know that Benigno cares for her in the way he does. To oppose this (non)relationship of two very feminine characters is the real relationship between the very masculine travel writer Marco and Lydia, whose job as a matador is traditionally reserved for men. So these apparent heterosexual relationships are shown as having subtle homosexual traits.

 

I do not want to spoil too much of the plot, since this is one of the great joys of watching this film, suffice to note that it pays off paying attention from the start since you will want to discuss what exactly happened since some crucial explanatory moments are either cleverly edited out or even more cleverly shown subliminally. This film thus shows Almodóvar at his best: the story stands stronger and the characters are as interesting as the relationships they are in, even though the women are in coma for most of the movie. I suppose very few directors could get away with making a film like this, but Almodóvar not only gets away with it, he delivers a masterpiece.

 

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