Pedro Almodóvar says that, “Women inspire me to write comedies and men, tragedies,” referring to his latest film as a “testicular” story. Here, the women — usually larger than life and centre-stage in his films — are literally silenced, as both central female characters are in comas.
The script, however, makes excellent use of a free-flowing, flashback structure that allows us to get to know them, albeit through the eyes of the male narrators.
Accordingly, Talk To Her ( Hable Con Ella) is a personal film exploring several of Almodóvar’s favourite themes: story-telling, loneliness, friendship and the importance of communication in relationships.
Despite its potentially bleak subject matter, it’s not without the Spanish director’s trademark black humour, evident in its master-stroke — the addition of a saucy, silent film-within-the-film called Shrinking Lover, which here serves a subtly clever purpose.