Family matters in Spain

People were stunned last year at the Cannes Film Festival when the jury awarded the Best Actress prize to all the women of "Volver," director Pedro Almodóvar's latest accomplishment in his long filmmaking career. While I've only seen a handful of his works, the honor Cannes bestowed upon Pedro's actresses made perfect sense to me, for if any one of them weren't in the story, the whole thing might've fallen apart. \n"Volver" (pronounced Bol-Ber, Spanish for "to return") tells of the over-worked, stressed-out Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and all the women who make up her closely knit family. She has a beautiful daughter named Paula (Yohana Cobo), an awkward sister Sole (Lola Dueñas) and a pot-smoking best friend Agustina (Blanca Portillo). When Raimunda's husband sexually forces himself onto Paula, the result is him being stabbed and sent to the grave, all the while Raimunda and Sole's mother Irene (Carmen Maura), comes back from the grave as a ghost to see how her loved ones are doing. \nWhile the incident involving the husband is dreadfully serious, the rest of the film brims with life and warmth as these women interact with one another in a series of comedic trips around their Spanish town. While Raimunda tries to cover up the death of her husband as merely him leaving her, Sole tries to hide Irene from the rest of the family when she takes up residence in her apartment. \nEach of these women give such moving performances that it's easy to see why the jury couldn't award just one of them. This is the best performance Cruz has given in her entire career next to "Abre los ojos." While everyone knows how beautiful she is in general, this is a whole new level. She has a smile that could make you melt, yet her sassy, independent attitude shows just how strong she is. \nMaura's performance will move you to tears of joy while Dueñas and Portillo will keep you laughing with their dead-on comedic timing. And Cobo, in all her youthful innocence, matures convincingly from teenage girl to young woman within the span of two hours. \n"Volver" says a lot about the importance of family and how they're always there when we need them. Almodóvar takes this element and breathes honesty and heart into it. In the best of times and the worst, it is our family we can count on for an understanding shoulder to shed tears upon and a laugh to aid in forgetting all the worries that come at us in life. \nPerhaps the only unfortunate mark comes at the very end, for I felt like after seeing just such a small glance into their lives, I was saying goodbye as quickly as I had said hello. You learn so much about them that you just want to watch their entire lives unfold -- a quality films rarely have the ability to capture, yet "Volver" provides in spades.