Margareta Blue Träumer This film is not a love story, but one about what it means to be utterly alone and unable to establish human connection. Marco seems to understand that Benigno's great plague is loneliness, and, as a man who experienced it too well and and for too long, is capable of empathy. He, nevertheless, perfectly understands that Benigno's behaviour is morally wrong and unacceptable. What moved me the most was the moment Marco explains that Benigno is innocent. And he is, because in his little world where real human communication and connection are not possible, he does not do anything wrong. He is innocent because the kind of relationship he has with Alicia is the only one he had ever had.Marco functions more like a reflector of the story, as without him we would be tempted to see Benigno from one light only and consider him a sick man, a psychopath, which he is (but he is other things too). With the difference that seeing him this way is too simple, and nothing is simple, as another character mentions in the film. So, Marco's character directs towards Benigno some sympathy and understanding and encourages viewers to do the same. I liked the way the bits of the story were arranged and the added elements that served to suggest the more unsettling events that were not explicitly shown in the film. All in all, It is truly an accomplished film which draws attention toward the consequences of isolation and dysfunctional family relationships.

samba_blue This film so intensely dehumanizes comatose women and so romanticizes and apologizes for rapists that you see all these nauseating reviews applauding it. People get so sucked in that they are not even realizing what they are watching - the rape of patients in comas. Read that again. This is manipulative filmmaking at it's WORST. Sickening and insulting to abuse victims.

Christopher Culver Pedro Almodovar's 2002 film HABLE CON ELLA is one of the film-maker's most elegant achievements. Benigno (Javier Camera) is a nurse in a Madrid hospital taking care of Alicia (Leonor Watling), a young ballerina who has lived in a coma for the last four years. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is an Argentinian journalist who watches in horror as his torero girlfriend Lydia (Rosario Flores) falls into a coma after a bullfighting tragedy. The two men form an odd friendship, with Benigno's unwavering love for his ward contrasted with Marco's emotional turmoil. HABLE CON ELLA was the film sensation of the year that I moved to Spain, and I watched it many times then and later. After a recent viewing, I decided that I can fairly declare it to be a masterpiece.HABLE CON ELLA succeeds on several different fronts, from strong acting by this international cast to the bold use of colors and the cinematography. But for me the most memorable are the two psychological tricks Almodovar works in the plot. He inspires such sympathy in the viewer for Benigno, a character who upon rational reflection is arguably monstrous. Then, at the close of the film, he provides what seems like a heartwarming happy ending even when tragedy has unfolded for much of the film. On my recent viewing, I was especially touched by Marco's insightful musings on love in the last flashback scene.Almodovar's movies are often full of odd sexual twists, a fact with which this reviewer is well acquainted and quite used to. For viewers unused to the Spanish auteur, things may initially seem bizarre, but I would call on everyone who likes art cinema to give HABLE CON ELLA a chance.

laurafugate Almodóvar has again proved his uniquely talented capacity to deliver an emotionally textured and morally ambiguous drama. What superficially appears to be a story of two men's shared experience of caring for the comatose women they love, reveals to be as much – if not more – about the relationship that develops between the two male protagonists, Marco and Benigno. Their differences draw them together and offer them the opportunity for understanding and human connection unlike what either has experienced in a romantic context. Talk to Her challenges our conceptions of intimacy, questions our associations of femininity, and examines our reactions to love and loss. Marco, a sensitive but disconnected travel writer, is paralyzed with hopelessness after a bull gorging leaves his matador lover, Lydia in a coma. Benigno, an obsessively loyal and socially stunted nurse, has dedicated four years of round-the-clock care to Alicia, a woman who has not (and now cannot)requite his affections. Marco is physically present in Lydia's room,but he cannot connect. He confides in Benigno: "I can't even touch her…I feel so despicable." Benigno behavior toward Alicia is so far on the other end of the spectrum that it culminates in a morally deplorable action. He feels his love for Alicia is enough to sustain their "relationship," even stating that they "get along better than most married couples." A logical unfolding of the story from this point might have assumed that Marco would emerge as the moral hero, helping Benigno understand the errors of his mentality and saving him from a life of irrational and criminal obsession. Oh, but Almodóvar would never let us off so simply. Benigno is the unconventional hero who teaches Marco that the root of love is in the ability to communicate.What both men find in their friendship with each other is a reciprocal intimacy that neither one has experienced with the women they love. Loneliness is their shared adversary. Instead of harping on Benigno's skewed morality and social ineptitude, Marco sees the beauty of loyalty and confidence of character exhibited by his new friend. Through the glass wall at the prison, Benigno, destitute and forsaken, desires simply the physical contact of a hug from the only person who has not abandoned him. Both men express traits typically associated as feminine – care-giving, grieving, longing for intimacy, crying over loss as well as beauty. Yet, even when their sexual orientation is explicitly questioned, neither feels compelled to defend their masculinity or correct the assumption. With consistency, Almodóvar continues to challenge gender roles and social norms. Talk to Her is framed in circularity as it begins and ends with segments from two different live ballets. The characters' presence and reactions as member of the audience serve as a vehicle to fill in deeply layered emotion without the use of dialogue or explanation. Almodóvar also utilizes this technique in the middle of the film with a creative homage to the avant-garde silent melodramas of the 1920s. As Benigno tells Alicia,"The Shrinking Man" is about a doomed lover so devoted that he sacrifices himself to be part of his mistress forever. This break in the narrative actually serves to pull the audience deeper into Benigno's psyche while also symbolizing the action of insemination. By not filming the sexual act itself, Almodóvar pushes the moral ambiguity of the case and avoids casting Benigno strictly as a rapist. The theme of the film is not about answering whether or not Benigno is a "bad guy." The presentation of the moral dilemma intentionally blurs the lines and forces the audience to see Benigno as a person beyond his actions. The task of creating such emotionally complex characters that can successfully draw surprising sympathy from viewers warrants tremendous praise. While Talk to Her may be considered a bit of a walk on the main-stream side for such an experimental counterculture director, Almodóvar has succeeded in challenging a more traditional audience to connect with emotional intellect to non- traditional cinema.