So the other day I was perusing a list of films and I don't recall what the list happened to be about but it was some sort of list of "best of something" films and Volver was on the list. I like Peneope Cruz for a number of reasons, mostly because of her performance in Vanilla Sky and I do enjoy seeing her act in her native tongue, at least for me, doesn't really belong on a list of "best of anything."
[src](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/PtiAY_f-ShA/movieposter.jpg) I'm not complaining that the film is in Spanish because I am actually one of those weirdos that prefers foreign films to USA films since they don't always tend to have very predictable Hollywood storylines. I'm complaining about this film being on "top lists" because it isn't a very good film and I think that Penelope's presence is getting a bit more praise than it deserves because of who she is and how hot she happens to be.
The plot is one of a family in Madrid who is very lower-middle class complete with a do-nothing husband and an otherwise wonderful family structure. They struggle with money, argue over it, and try to make ends meet and things are looking quite normal as far as their family economic difficulties are concerned and then all of a sudden a ghost mom appears. This all makes zero sense as far as the rest of the film is concerned and maybe there is some sort of art-school meaning behind all of this that I am just too much of a commoner to understand why I am supposed to be "wowed" by it all.
[src](https://kelleepratt.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/volver_momirene.jpg)Everyone does what they need to do and certain very convenient things fall into place in order to paint a picture of female members of a family doing what it takes in order to make things work for all of the family to be able to continue such as the existence of a restarant that just happens to be vacant for Penelope Cruz's character to take over and make some money in the nick of time. It's all quite "convenient" for the exact timing of when these things needed to happen and the exact timing of it all, which we are meant to believe is all just happenstance, is a little to dreamy for me to really get sucked into the entire story that is going on here.
[src](https://resizing.flixster.com/5TDXc4rLQ1xGWV-xE93U1ld0cm0=/740x380/v1.bjsyNzIzMTQ7ajsxODY3ODsxMjAwOzEwMjQ7NTEy)Don't get the wrong idea here: I am not bagging on this film because it seems to be a "girl power" film because I know from my own life experiences that in a lot of ways women are definitely a lot better at being part of a family unit than men are - this much I definitely agree with and I think that for the most part the world would be a better place if it wasn't a "man's world." I just don't like that this film is lauded as being some sort of "must see" because the story isn't anything particularly compelling.
The pieces of the puzzle that fall into place are completely ridiculous that the fact that mama ghost (who I am still not certain was actually a ghost) just happens to appear when she does is just entirely too "hmmmm, how can we spice up this otherwise boring script a bit" - ish.
Should I watch it?
Honestly, my gut reaction is no. I suffered through the 90 minutes of this films expecting something amazing to happen because it is so heavily promoted by the various artistic critics that exist out there that seem to want to put it on some sort of "top" list for reasons that I am guessing I am too stupid to understand.
For me this film was boring and I don't like it when pieces to a puzzle just seem to fall into place that the characters in said film just happen to stumble upon. Maybe that was the entire idea from the start: I don't know. For me personally, I found myself really struggling to stay engaged and wanting to turn it off. I made it all the way to the end and it finishes in exactly the way you would expect. At least they made a ton of money off of it but you would have to pay me to watch this again.
Go ahead and educate me on how I am wrong about my assessment of this movie: I welcome the criticism
