Hable con ella (Talk to Her, 2002)

Hable con ella (Talk to Her, 2002) is a Spanish film directed by Pedro Almodovar. It tells the story of four people - two men and two women. One of the men, Marco, is a journalist who constantly visits his girlfriend, Lydia, at a clinic. Lydia, a bullfighter, is in a coma after being gored by a bull. Marco sits by her side, day by day, in hopes that one day she will wake up. The other man, Benigno, is an affectionate nurse at the clinic who looks after another female patient there named Alicia. She is a dance student who fell into a coma after being hit by a car in an accident while walking across the street.

After coincidentally sitting next to each other at a ballet in the very beginning of the movie, Marco and Benigno meet each other at the clinic and see each other frequently. This leads to them growing a close friendship with each other. Marco observes how lovingly Benigno takes care of Alicia, giving her body rubs and talking to her in her coma, among other things. It is eventually revealed that Benigno actually has a sick obsession with his patient, whom he previously stalked before the accident.

During the course of the film, through a series of flashbacks and flashforwards, the stories of the relationships between Marco and Lydia and Benigno and Alicia are revealed. They show the seperate histories of the two pair and how they met, the tragic events that forced the two women into their comas, and eventually, what becomes of their relationships.

One day, when Marco comes in to visit Lydia, he sees that another man is already in her room by her side. It a former lover of Lydia and it turns out that they had gotten back together a whole month before Lydia fell into her coma. Sadly, Marco stops visiting and ends up moving away to write a travel guide. He eventually discovers that Lydia dies while still in her coma.

On the other hand, Benigno is suspected of raping Alicia in her coma after it is discovered that she is pregnant. Shortly afterwards, he is put into a mental institution where he attempts to overdose on medication enough to put himself in a coma, but not enough to kill him. The plan ends up backfiring as he overdoses on the medication. Meanwhile, Alicia wakes up after having her baby. She continues living her life, going through rehabilitation and being taken care of by her dance instructor.

I found Hable con ella to be an interesting story. It was well done and kept my attention for the entirety of the film. The acting performances were all excellent and all the actors were very convincing of their roles. Sometimes I found all the flashbacks and flashforwards a little bit confusing, but after a while, I was still able to figure everything all out.

I also noticed that the ballet performance in the very beginning of the movie related to the whole story very well. The performance included two ballerinas who seemed to be unaware of their movements and what they were doing, which, in my mind, represented Lydia and Alicia in their comas. They were bumping into walls and gliding all over the place as two men pushed chairs that were all over the stage out of their way. These men represented Marco and Benigno, who looked after and kept Lydia and Alicia company throughout the movie. I found this relation to be quite interesting.

Hable con ella is a movie well done and well directed. I enjoyed it and found the story to be enjoyable.