Talk to Her

Talk to Her (2002) is about two women in comas and the two men who care for them. Benigno is a nurse in a hospital. He looks after a ballet student named Alicia who has been in a coma for four years. He talks to her every day: describes the films he has seen, recounts the ballets, brushes her hair. Marco is a journalist. His partner Lydia is a bullfighter who is badly injured in the ring and falls into a coma. He cannot talk to her; he does not know what to say and simply sits. The two men meet at the hospital. Benigno tells him: talk to her, one has to talk to women. The first half makes Benigno seem endearing. Then something happens and everything you have watched has to be reconsidered. Almodóvar places you inside a point of view and then shows you what that point of view is. A silent black and white short film is inserted; Benigno narrates it, and at that moment the film does not show what is actually happening. It won the original screenplay Oscar; Almodóvar was not nominated for direction, which was argued over. Caetano Veloso sings as himself in one scene and it is the most remembered passage. Pina Bausch's dance works open and close the film. Javier Cámara and Darío Grandinetti star. It runs 112 minutes. Good for: Almodóvar, morally difficult films, and Spanish cinema. Less good for: the subject involves a sexual assault and the film regards it with unusual detachment.