There is often an ugly darkness within the gorgeous melodramas by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar, from his directorial debut in the 1980s to his English-language feature debut, The Room Next Door, in 2024. Bold colors in the set design and costuming are beautiful visuals that contrast the pain. The laughs and tears come as pairs in his classic, All About My Mother, when a grieving mother returns to a life she wanted to leave behind. A self-defense killing brings a mother and daughter closer together in Volver. These films can provoke strong reactions from viewers. Almodóvar won his sole Oscar for Talk to Her, a tragic story of a surprising friendship and disturbing violence.
‘Talk to Her’ Is the Story of Two Lonely Men
Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is in a relationship with female matador Lydia (Rosario Flores). Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a nurse and the primary caretaker of the comatose dancer Alicia (Leonor Watling). Two different circumstances bring these two men into a friendship neither would have expected when a bad accident puts Lydia into a coma, and she is looked after in the same hospital where Alicia is. The premise is odd yet simple, until it becomes complex and shocking. The visual style is an iconic part of this director’s wild melodramas that balance the quirkier plot points with darker urges. It may have a woman-centric title, but Talk to Her is more concerned with male loneliness and how the friendship between Marco and Benigno is tested when an unspeakable act happens.
‘Talk to Her’ Is Different From Other Films by Almodóvar
Women are frequently the stars of Almodóvar’s films, with some of his powerful entries involving the many collaborations he has had with Penélope Cruz. When the men take the spotlight, the result is still electric, as Antonio Banderas is often a muse. But then there is Talk to Her. Marco finds himself unable to communicate with his girlfriend anymore; Benigno feels heard by his one-sided conversations with his patient, Alicia. With the women they care for stuck in comas, these men forge a bond with one another from the unusual circumstances they are in. But the film sneaks up on you as it pushes the boundaries of how disturbing the story will become.
Desire and obsession of the characters are reflected by what is in the frame, and the color in a scene invigorates the surrounding emotions. A close-up watch as a piece of snow-white paper towel turns scarlet when it soaks up blood to hide a crime in Volver. Another intense close-up is in Talk to Her, when the gooey ebb and flow of a lava lamp in Alicia’s hospital room feels sensual. The imagery that is captured in Alicia’s room is artful, but also deeply uncomfortable. Her completely still, nude body being cleaned or dressed shows how vulnerable she is. It hints at the sexual assault that will soon be exposed, and how the film handles this makes sure it doesn’t become exploitative.
The Melodrama of ‘Talk to Her’ Takes a Darker Turn
“What you have with Alicia is a monologue, and it’s crazy!” The assault is implied, but never shown. A bizarre segment of a fictional black-and-white film is more explicit as it tells the story of a failed experiment that causes a man to shrink. The love his scientist girlfriend has for him never changes, and the shrunken man decides to pleasure her, without consent, by going inside her. It’s farcical until Talk to Her explores how destructive male loneliness can be when it makes a man so alienated from human connection that he does something despicable, and it damages many lives.
Almodóvar’s Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her, beat out Far from Heaven, Gangs of New York, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and Y Tu Mamá También. The fast-paced dialogue in Almodóvar’s script is snappy, funny, sad, and just as odd as everything else in the plot. “One thing I respect is other people’s phobias,” Marco tells Lydia with a straight face, no winks, upon learning she hates snakes.
And there is the structure of the script that moves the plot forward in chronological order, before suddenly flashing back into the past to learn new details that change your understanding of the present. The plot twists feel inevitable rather than tossed in for a shock, with a matter-of-fact tone like the death and violence put into the story, for the consequences to have importance over seeing it happen. Talk to Her isn’t the easiest watch as it sinks further into the darkness. There is hope in the ending, but it wouldn’t be a melodrama by Almodóvar if he didn’t cloud the colorful world with a heavy sense of tragedy that sticks with you.
- Release Date
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March 15, 2002
- Runtime
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112 minutes
- Director
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Pedro Almodóvar
- Writers
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Pedro Almodóvar
- Producers
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Agustín Almodóvar
