BEFORE: A last-minute substitution tonight - I remembered something about one of the characters in this film being deceased, and thought it might tie in with last night's film. Linking from "The Lovely Bones", Stanley Tucci was in "It Could Happen to You" with Nicolas Cage, who was in "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" with Penelope Cruz (last seen in "Blow").
THE PLOT: After her death, a mother returns to her home town in order to fix the situations she couldn't resolve during her life.
AFTER: I don't speak much Spanish, but the title means "Coming back", as far as I can tell. No need to look it up - that translation works for me, so let's run with it.
Well, I got sort of faked out here, but then I imagine that's the point. Still, this film shares a lot of common elements with last night's film, but I can't divulge them all without giving away the entire plot - and I try to maintain a spoiler-free zone.
Like in "Sunshine Cleaning", we're presented with a family that's still recovering from their mother's death. Two sisters, one married (Cruz) and one separated, plus the married woman's daughter and an elderly aunt. They live in Madrid, except for the aunt, who lives back in their old village. When the elderly aunt dies, there are rumors in the village that she'd been cared for the ghost of her sister, the dead matriarch of the family.
Things get more complicated when the separated sister sees the ghost too, and brings her home to live with her, and help out in her illegal hair salon - while the married sister takes over the for-sale restaurant owned by a friend, and opens her own restaurant. Apparently in Spain, you don't need any paperwork to start a business, you just invoke squatter's rights.
Eventually a complex family history is revealed, and there are plenty of buried secrets (and bodies!). And a family friend, who has a terminal illness, sort of forces it all to the surface. When the truths are revealed, it came to my mind that if the mother HAD found a way to come back from the dead, that almost seems like it would be less complicated.
Tonight I learned that Spanish women are tough - don't let all the air-kissing fool you. Also, I learned that all men are pigs, women are probably better off without their cheating ways. Oh, and that most important matters are best resolved without involving the police. And personal family histories shouldn't be revealed on a talk show. (Got that, Maury?)
I don't watch a lot of foreign films, this might be the first (and last?) Spanish-language film in the project. But at least the subtitles forced me to pay attention, perhaps more than usual. Why wasn't this ever re-made by Hollywood for the U.S. market? Is it because this is too much like a Spanish soap opera?
RATING: 4 out of 10 boxes of cookies
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