Hable con Ella [Talk to Her] (2002)

(In French, On Cable TV, February 2017) If ever you wake up one morning and feel that cinema is too boring, to rote, too safe for you, then have a look at Pedro Almodóvar’s Hable con Ella. Strange and off-beat and surreal in ways that can’t even be described in a capsule review, it’s a film about death, life, obsession, accusations, two women in coma, the men who care for them and an outrageous dream sequence. Good performances by the lead actors complement Almodóvar’s unusual script and direction. It doesn’t deal with the usual topics, and certainly doesn’t deal with them in the usual way. Good, great, bad, boring—I’m still not too sure how best to describe Hable con Ella, but it’s certainly memorable.