Talk to Her review

 Number 308 on the top 1000 films of all time is Pedro Almodovar's 2002 Spanish psychological melodrama 'Talk to Her.'

Marco Zuluaga (Dario Grandinetti) is a journalist. Benigno Martin (Javier Camara) is a nurse. What connects these two different men is that the women they love  - pioneering matador Lydia Gonzalez (Rosario Flores) and talented dancer Alicia Roncero (Leonor Watling) respectively are in comas. The two men form an unlikely friendship, as they take care of their women.

This film is largely told in flashback, as we explore the reasons that Lydia and Alicia are in their comas. We also understand their relationships with Marco and Benigno in more detail. Admittedly, things take a while to get going, but when they do the film is enjoyable. Marco and Benigno are two different characters with two differing mindsets.

Marco is in despair over Lydia's condition whereas Benigno has an almost insufferable optimism about Alicia recovering and the two living happily ever after. The far-more grounded Marco often has to bring the fantasist Benigno back down to Earth. Despite this, the two quickly become friends.

They form a poignant and touching relationship, as we explore how different people react to grief. But as we approach the ending, things take an unnecessarily dark turn.

*Spoilers*

While Marco and Lydia are lovers, things are far more one-sided with Benigno and Alicia. Before she enters her coma, Benigno forms an unhealthy obsession with her. He is overjoyed at finding out that he will be the nurse assigned at looking after her. But then it is implied that this obsession has grown so toxic that he goes onto rape and impregnate her.

From there, the film takes a different turn, as Marco desperately tries to prove his friend's innocence. Although I found it strange that nobody took a paternity test from Alicia's baby. Yes, it was stillborn, but surely this could have been the one thing that either affirmed or denied Benigno's guilt. And we never got a positive answer either way.

I didn't like the dark path that this film took. Up until this point, it seemed like a feel-good, heart-warming picture that helps you find hope in even the darkest of places. But then that was all undone by the unnecessarily dark ending.