Stars: Rosario Flores, Elena Anaya, Geraldine Chaplin

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Summary: Following the success of his 1999 film, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar presents TALK TO HER. Driven by similar themes of fate, destiny, magic, and chance happenings, TALK TO HER is the tale of two men whose lives intertwine unpredictably. Benigno (Javier Camara) is a dedicated nurse working at a special clinic for coma patients. He is responsible for Alicia (Leonor Watling), a student of modern dance who he met only once, four years earlier, before she fell into a coma. Happy, open-minded, and full of hope, Benigno brings an air of joy and love to the clinic. Meanwhile, Marco (Dario Grandinetti), a freelance journalist, has fallen in love with the famous female bullfighter Lydia (Rosario Flores). Though he does his best to be an attentive lover to her, he is haunted by his past, and is unable to step out of his own shell. When Lydia is gored and falls into a coma, placed in the same clinic as Alicia, Marco and Benigno instantly become friends. They are each other's perfect counterpart and it is immediately evident that they need each other and care for each other deeply. But it is not until after they part, and a new aspect of Benigno's personality surfaces, that the strength of their friendship is tested and proven.<BR>Almodovar has created a true work of art with TALK TO HER. Its photography offers one clean colourful setting after another, its musical score is peppered with great moments such as a breathtaking performance of Cucurrucucu paloma by Caetano Veloso, and its inclusion of moving dance performances by Pina Bausch (Cafe Muller and Masurca Fogo) bring an element of abstract sadness and beauty to the film.

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Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's Talk To Heris his least stylised, most accessible and arguably greatest movie. Covering the same, highly provocative terrain as Dennis Potter's Brimstone and Treacleand The Smiths' "Girlfriend in a Coma", Almodovar forges a work that's funny, compassionate, engaging and deeply touching.

Unusually for Almodovar, the emphasis is on the two male characters, with the female leads spending much of the film as "objects" in a vegetative state. Dario Grandinetti plays Marco, a journalist who befriends Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter. Following a goring in the ring, she lapses into a coma. At the clinic where she is kept on life support, Marco meets a somewhat effete male nurse, Benigno (Javier Camara) who lovingly tends to a ballet student, Alicia, also chronically comatose. They strike up a friendship, their respective stories emerging through flashbacks. Both, however, respond to their common fate in different ways. Marco is distraught at the loss of Lydia, whereas the dysfunctional Benigno is blissful, tending to Alicia, for whom he nourished an obsession prior to accident. Reduced to being a vegetable, she is fully, unresistingly, his.

It's a tribute to Almodovar that he is able to handle the outlandish, potentially appalling subject matter of Talk To Herwith such finesse. Emotionally, it's often on a knife edge; there are moments when you don't know whether to laugh, gasp or sigh. But when ultimately you find yourself welling with tears of sympathy for an alleged rapist, you realise what a master filmmaker Almodovar is.

On the DVD:Talk To Heroffers an excellent transfer of a visually handsome movie. Extras are a little disappointing--just trailers for Almodovar's more outlandish Live Fleshand All About My Mother. --David Stubbs

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Wide Screen
Main Language:	Spanish
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Talk To Her Theatrical Trailer, All About My Mother Theatrical Trailer, Live Flesh Theatrical Trailer, Pedro Almodovar Biography, Scene Access, Interactive Menus
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2002
Release Date:	February 24, 2003
Runtime:	113 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P 9049 D V D
Keywords:	Talk, Subtitled, General, Her, Wide, Screen, Spanish, Drama, Aka, Ella, Con, Hable
Genre:	Drama