Volver (for the women)

Maggie says:
Pedro Almodóvar's films make me want to simultaneously cry and smile and hug all the women I love: family and the women who've become family. He's absolutely amazing, and must have the biggest heart of any filmmaker alive. His smallest moments are so full of beauty I can't look away from them, even though they're often so full of pain you almost can't bear to watch.

Volver is beyond good, and for a great take on it, read Gene's write-up from December after the Santa Fe Film Festival screening. (The line "I honestly think I learned something about the gender" is classic Gene.)

It was especially poignant to leave the theater last night and step into yet another snowstorm, as if the sky was matching my internal unleashing with its own. Downtown Albuquerque was beautiful in the fury of midnight snow, full of couples running hand in hand to their cars under one of those eerily bright snow-skies that turns everything pink.

Winter weather is perfect for Almodóvar (better for everything to seep in, I think), so go and rent an armful and settle in under a blanket to smile and laugh and cry. Red wine is recommended. It will do you good, I promise. (And do not, under any circumstances, forget to include All About My Mother.)

PS: While I'm talking movies, Gene and I are still reeling from our Little Children viewing a few weeks ago. What a writer's movie! Another must-see, trust me.