Product Details

• Actors: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo, Yohana Cobo
• Directors: Pedro Almodóvar
• Writers: Pedro Almodóvar
• Producers: Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García, Toni Novella
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Spanish
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click .
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• DVD Release Date: April 3, 2007
• Run Time: 121 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000N3T0DW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,178 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #90 in Movies & TV > DVD > Foreign Films
• Learn more about "Volver" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Spanish for "Coming Back," Volver is a return to the all-female format of All About My Mother. Unlike Pedro Almodóvar's previous two pictures, the story revolves around a group of women in Madrid and his native La Mancha. (The cast received a collective best actress award at Cannes.) Raimunda (a zaftig Penélope Cruz) is the engine powering this heartfelt, yet humorous vehicle. When husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) is murdered, Raimunda makes like Mildred Pierce to deflect attention away from daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). After telling everyone the lout has left, she struggles to conceal his body. The other women in her life all have secrets of their own. Her sister, Sole (Lola Dueñas), for instance, has taken in their mother, Irene (a sprightly Carmen Maura). Since Irene perished in a fire, is this person a ghost or simply a woman who looks like her? Then there's their childhood friend, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), who is desperate to find out why her mother disappeared after the blaze. Was she responsible? Almodóvar deftly blends the ghost story with the murder mystery in his tribute to the Italian neo-realist films of the 1950s. The resilient Raimunda is a throwback to the earthy heroines of Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. The latter appears in Luchino Visconti's Bellissima, which shows up on Sole's television one night (thus confirming the link). If Almodóvar’s 16th feature lacks the emotional punch of the more audacious Talk to Her, it's less heavy-handed than Bad Education and Cruz is a revelation. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Product Description

Penelope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Antonio de la Torre. Cruz earned an Academy Award-® nomination for Best Actress for her role in this charming and touching story of two feuding sisters whose mother comes back from the dead to help them settle a lifetime of unfinished business. 2006/color/121 min/R.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Jewel of a Film! April 7, 2007

By JoeyD VINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD

A truly beautiful film! I was mesmerized throughout by the great writing, directing, cinematography, and above all the outstanding performances of all the wonderful actresses. One of the legendary grand dames of Spanish cinema Carmen Maura (the Judy Dench of Spain) gives a brilliant performance in a supporting role as Irene, the tortured matriarch trying to reconcile with her long, lost daughters. Penelope Cruz gives a performance that in almost any other year would have reaped her not only the Academy Award for Best Actress, but every other award known to man-kind as well (however, having seen the movie "The Queen" it was no doubt Helen Mirren's year). I have never seen Ms. Cruz even come close to being as great as she is in this fine film. She is not only breathtakingly beautiful as our main heroine Raimunda (ala Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani) but she seems to glide across the screen with such balletic grace and effortlessness that you can't take your eyes off of her for a second. The scenes between her and Maura in particular are simply sublime beyond words. The other three main actresses also give outstanding performances in supporting roles - Yohana Cobo (Paula, Raimunda's teenage daughter), Blanca Portillo (Agustina), and in particular Lola Duenas (Sole, Raimunda's loyal and lonely younger sister).

This is not a 'chick flick'. This is not one of those boring, esoteric, foreign films that you need to be of European descent to truly understand and appreciate. Pedro Almodar truly weaves together an absolutely wonderful story with a great message as well. These women exude such strength and inner beauty that it is almost impossible to not empathize with each one of them. I was pleasantly suprised when I walked out of the movie theatre and I am planning on purchasing this DVD soon. Also, anyone who has been to Spain and fell in love with the people and culture (as I did) will truly love this film! It is such an enchanting, charming land full of benevolent and passionate souls.

It is definitely a five star movie in my opinion and one of the finest films of it's kind that I have seen in years.

94 of 111 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A World Without Men November 5, 2006

By MICHAEL ACUNA VINE™ VOICE

There is a great scene in Pedro Almodovar's latest, "Volver" that encapsulates all that this wonderful, resonant movie is about: Raimunda (a sexy, earthy Penelope Cruz who has never been better on screen) sings a gypsy/flamenco style song, having not sang in public for many years but in possession of a gorgeous singing voice, while her mother Irene (the legendary Carmen Maura), thought to be dead , discretely listens from afar. Almodovar's camera cuts between mother and daughter, both totally committed emotionally to the scene, both recalling their former lives together, estranged for years but still possessing that particular brand of love that exists only between a Mother and her daughter, both longing for lives without trials and tribulations and fear, lives without problems, without cares. "Volver" (which means to return, to come back) is nothing if not about returning to the innocence of youth: to a time when Love abounded and came without a price and without consequences. But "Volver" is also about second chances, re-tooling you life albeit, Almodovar-style which always involves some manner of the strange, the violent sometimes and the weird. This line towards re-tooling/re-imagining your life is not a straight one by any means but a zigzagged one going from "a" to "g" more often than from "a" to "b."
In "Volver" we have the extraordinary character of Raimunda played to the hilt by Penelope Cruz who has always been better in her native Spanish than she's ever been in her English films. Raimunda is strong, decisive, hard-working, married to a lout, a devoted mother and sister of Soledad (Lola Duenas) with whom she shares a strong bond now that their parents are dead.
"Volver" is a film almost totally without men except Paco, Raimunda's husband and Paula's (Raimunda's daughter)father who leaves the film early on and as such it reminds me of the Neo-Realist film classics of the WW2 era, "Open City" and the Sophia Loren starring "Two Women." But in this world without men that is "Volver" nothing seems amiss because the world that Almodovar has created is rich with well defined woman's roles: compassionately written and more importantly profoundly and deeply executed by the ensemble of actors that Almodovar has assembled: Cruz, Maura, Duenas and Blanca Portillo as Angelina.
Once again with "Volver," Almodovar has returned to the world of women alone and it is a film primarily about but definitely not only for women: their power over us, their weaknesses, their hopes, their desires. But "Volver" also shows us that mysterious inner core that all women possess which gives them an edge, a wisdom that men don't have. Call it maturity, call it a security, call it a special strength. You can even call it "feminine intuition." But, call it what you like, it's there, only women have it and lucky man, Pedro Almodovar is on a first name basis with it.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Return of Almodovar! February 25, 2007

By Daryl B

I've never been a big fan of Penlope Cruz but this film, I think, has changed that! I have been, however, a fan of Pedro Almodovar for 20 years and he gives us another strong tale centered around a group of women that involves murder, incest, ghosts and much more!

Thankfully, we see the wonderful Carmen Maura reunited with her director of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". She really shows her talent as an actress as the mother of Raimunda (Cruz) and Sole (Lola Duenas).

The story is set around to Raimunda and Sole, two sisters who lost their parents in a fire about four years earlier. Raimunda is married to a crude drunk and Sole is a lonely young woman separated from her husband. After a tragic event occurs for Raimunda and her daughter, Paula (Yohana Cobo), Raimunda is forced to keep a secret to protect her daughter and herself. The one thing that bonds all the women is the secrets they keep. Irene (Maura), their mother, has a secret that could give the terminally ill Agustina (Blanca Portillo), who is a childhood friend of the sisters, an answer to the whereabouts of her absent mother.

The actresses in this film do AMAZING work. The story centers around Penelope Cruz who deserves the Oscar nomination she received. Carmen Maura, as usual, does a great job and another stand out is Blanca Portillo as the long suffering and loyal friend to the sisters.

If I have one criticism about the film, it just seem to end so abruptly. Other than that, Almodovar gives us another film about women that is well worth the price of your ticket as well as an addition to your dvd library. Highly recommended.