Review of “Volver” & “Last King of Scotland”

While there are any number of international film directors making unique and interesting films these days, none are doing it as consistently and with the panache of Pedro Almodovar.

It is as if the Spaniard has been the cultural voice of his now free country since it was released from its artistic shackles after the death of dictator Francisco Franco.

Almodovar’s films are deep and meaningful, colorful, rich and earthy, appropriately funny . . . and human.

This is a director who fashioned an incredibly accessible movie — “Talk To Her” (2002) — centered around two women in comas. Almost an impossible task.

With “Volver,” he’s done it again. Perhaps better than ever. The film’s title roughly translates as “to return to.” It works on many levels. But is important most of all in that it vaults Penelope Cruse into the upper echelon of international acting stars.

She’s always been uncommonly beautiful. Rare is the filmgoer that forgets the first view of her on the silver screen. For me it was in 1997’s “Open Your Eyes,” a film she later remade in English with then-boyfriend Tommy Cruise. In “Volver,” she vaults into nothing less than a modern day Sophia Loren. With better acting chops.

Here Cruse plays Raimunda the stalwart in a family of women. She is mother. She is sister. She is daughter. She is the rock. One moment she is gritty, determined, empowered, a survivor. The next she is coquette.

The movie is about rape and incest and murder and death and dysfunction and economic hardship. It’s about coping and accepting life’s exigencies and moving through them. Yet it is lovely. And accessible. And more engaging than one could possibly expect given the subject matter. And it is charming and funny.

Almodovar is a master. No European has made such personally stylized and intriguing films since Federico Fellini. That Italian had Marcello Mastroianni as his acting stand in. Almodovar has Penelope Cruse.

“Volver” is certainly among his best.

* * * * *

Much has been written — deservedly so — about Forest Whitaker’s boffo performance as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in Kevin McDonald’s “The Last King of Scotland.” It has justifiably been said that the movie is worth seeing if only to observe the Golden Globe winner.

One guy’s opinion is that the film is more.

McDonald’s other noteworthy directorial effort was “Touching The Void,” a docudrama about two mountain climbers who miraculously survived a horrendous situation.

Here he captures the essence of Africa in the 70’s — the lifestyle, the music. The saturated palette of color works perfectly.

What has gone mostly unstated is the brilliance of the performance of James McAvoy, who plays a Scottish doctor who comes under the spell of Amin. The film is as much about the transition from McAvoy’s naivete to experiencing brutal reality as it is about the evil of Whitaker’s engaging Amin.

As with “Volver,” “The Last King of Scotland” is well worth a trip to the movie house.

(This is a capsule of my reviews which aired on WFPK-FM on 1/30/07.)

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