It’s undeniably difficult for an everyday man to talk about Almodóvar’s movies, including, but not limited to, his newest flick called Volver which just hit Australian indie screens.

Pedro seems to understand the incomprehensible – a woman’s soul. And while exposing this miraculous issue to unenlightened (male) crowd, he’s also giving the Hollywood industry incapable of producing strong female character movies a lesson. Kinda treating bad education, isn’t he?

The story of Volver evolves around a female part of a family, sisters Raimunda (Penélope Cruz) and Sole (Lola Dueñas), their dead mother (Carmen Maura), their friend and neighbour Augustina (Blanca Portillo), and Raimunda’s daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo).

Sisters’ mother died in a fire some years ago but then somehow comes back to look after their ageing aunt. Once auntie dies, she moves in with Sole. In the meantime, Raimunda is fighting different issues as her spouse Paco was taking his fatherly love too far and dies after being stabbed by Paula in self-defence, so there is a body that has to be disposed of.

That all happens within opening fifteen minutes of the movie. From there, central characters are given almost two hours to untangle their relationships. That offers the female cast, but primarily Penélope Cruz, enough time to assure us of their talents. No wonder they all snatched the award for the best actress in Cannes this year (as did Pedro himself for his screenplay).

Movie starts with a mystery return, but it really concentrates on down-to-earth feelings and everyday subjects that matter the characters – from looking after the graves to looking after themselves. And it’s all quietly interlaced with love these characters share.

The movie is vibrant and funny, and while partially dealing with harsh subjects like incest, murder and painful dying, not even mentioning healing the wounds of hearts, it does so with grace and unyielding passion, so typical for every Almodóvar’s movie.

However, without denying Pedro’s zeal or professionalism, one should still distinguish between a masterpiece and a good movie. This one bears a trademark style, ideas, places and even people, but still happens to be a little bit short of the former.