VOLVER — CANNES 2006

The ubiquitous Pedro Almodovar adopts Penelope Cruz as his latest muse for his 16^th film.

Cruz leads a predominately female cast in a cross-generational story about the culture of death in Almodovar's native region of La Mancha, Spain. The effect is mesmerizing.

Raimunda (Cruz) moves back to her hometown of La Mancha from Madrid to hide the corpse of her husband Paco after her daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo) kills the man who may or may not be her father after he attempts to sexually molest her.

Following the death of their Aunt Paula (Chus Lampreave), Raimunda’s hairdresser sister Sole (Lola Duenas) finds herself covering up the presence of their mother Irene’s ghost (Carmen Maura) who has moved into Aunt Paula’s house.

The entire pueblo already believes that Irene’s ghost has returned because Agustina (Blanca Portillo), the daughter of a woman who died in the same fire that killed Irene, was taking care of Paula when Irene’s ghost first appeared. If all this narrative knitting sounds complicated; it is.

And yet Almodovar effortlessly weaves together the complex story toward an airing of familial secrets and problems that bring the film to a satisfying ending. For her beautifully sustained performance Penelope Cruz shared this year’s Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actress with her co-stars Yohana Cobo, Lola Duenas, Chus Lampreave, Carmen Maura and Blanca Portillo.

Female family members brush away dirt from grave sites in the opening of “Volver.” The scene takes place in a real cemetery being kept up by peasant women who are actively connected to the same soil that they themselves are destined to be buried in. A prosthetic butt gives the apron-wearing Penelope Cruz a lower center of gravity that informs Raimunda’s sense of place and duty as symbol of motherhood.

One of the crucial themes that Almodovar manipulates is the idea that returning to a birthplace means making peace with ghosts both real and imagined. He presents his hometown of La Mancha as a place where men die young and women live on to sort out their personal relationships, as well as their shared histories that are clouded with lies.

The setting suggests a removed acknowledgement of the AIDS epidemic, but Almodovar has too many other familial fish to fry to get bogged down with something so obvious.

Raimunda takes advantage of the challenge she inherits from her daughter of disposing of her husband’s corpse as an excuse to change jobs. After depositing the body in an empty restaurant freezer Raimunda agrees to cater lunch for a film crew shooting a movie nearby.

Such self-reflexivity comes easily to Almodovar. The homey atmosphere she creates as a chef gives impetus for the film’s musical centerpiece where Raimunda serenades her dinner guests with the film’s title song "Volver," which translates as "to return." The musical sidebar works as a charming bit of sidelong character revelation.

As the deceased mother to Raimunda and Sole, Irene’s ghost ostensibly returns to open up a dialogue about her death as it relates to her late husband's infidelities that are more shocking than the tone of the movie would forecast. There are surprises here that tilt at the windmills of La Mancha as metaphors for the lasting effects of the cruelty that men do to their own families.

The way that Almodovar’s resilient women rise above their traumatic pasts to serve one another and their community is a microcosm of idealized reality that welcomes scrutiny. Under his admiring lens, the predominately female cast represent a vocabulary for reconciliation and forgiveness that is consistent with Almodovar’s thoughtful attention. These women are in charge of their destinies.

Rated R. 106 mins.