**~**Volver**~**

This was a pretty good movie. It did keep you in suspense, just as a "mystery" should. I found the theme of the movie was muerte (death).






The movie starts out with women in a graveyard, cleaning graves. We are introduced to Raimunda, her daughter Paula, Raimunda's sister Sole, and long-time friend Agustina. After the women clean the graveyard, Raimunda, Paula and Sole go and visit Aunt Paula. Aunt Paula lives on her own and Raimunda is worried that she can no longer take care of herself. Raimunda suggests that Aunt Paula come live with her, and the next time she comes to visit she will bring Aunt Paula to her house. Meanwhile, Sole needs to use the bathroom and sees her mother's spirit sitting in a chair, and also sees an exercise bike in the room, which she thinks is odd considering Aunt Paula can barely walk. The women leave Aunt Paula's with food that has been prepared and packaged individually for them with their names on it, and go to Agustina's house. The women chat for a little while and once Agustina lights up a joint, the women leave.



Raimunda and Paula arrive at home to find Paco sitting on the couch drinking and watching TV. Paula sits in a chair not lady like while wearing a skirt and Paco is taking peaks. Raimunda tells Paula to sit right. Paco informs Raimunda that he lost his job. The next day, when Raimunda gets off the bus, Paula is there to meet her. She is very sad, they get to the apartment and that is where Raimunda finds Paco dead in the kitchen. Paula explains to Raimunda what happened, and Raimunda tells her that whatever is asked, tell people that she did this. Raimunda starts cleaning up the mess. Someone comes to the door and it's the Emilio the man who owns the restaurant next door. He leaves the keys with Raimunda so that she can show the restaurant to potential buyers while he is away.



Raimunda and Paula transfer Paco's body to the restaurant where Raimunda places it into a deep freezer. Meanwhile, Raimunda receives a phone call from Sole about Aunt Paula dying. Raimunda insists that she can not attend the funeral and to tell everyone that she is having surgery.



While Sole is at the funeral, she sees her mother's spirit again, and she starts learning about the spirit of her mother showing up from time to time in the town. After she leaves Aunt Paula's and returns to her home, she hears the voice of her mother coming from her car. She lets her out and they go into her apartment. Sole runs an illegal hair salon, and she uses her mother and a shampoo girl, and tells her to pretend she is Russian and can't speak Spanish because her clients know that she is dead.



Meanwhile, Raimunda reopened the restaurant to cook for a film crew. They come everyday for dinner. Raimunda doesn't have a lot of money, so she relies on her friends in the neighborhood, and barters and trades for food to cook for the crew.



Raimunda takes Paula to Sole's house and leaves her there so she can tend to some business. Raimunda rents a van, and gets her neighborhood friends to help her get the deep freeze into the van. Raimunda gets Regina to ride with her to bury the deep freeze at the river 180 KM away.



While Paula is at Sole's house, she meets her grandmother Irene. Sole and Paula keep Irene a secret from Raimunda. Raimunda never had a good relationship with her mother. Raimunda is very suspicious of something going on because there are certain smells in Sole's house that remind her of her mother.



Finally, Raimunda is told of her mother visiting Sole. Raimunda and Irene finally talk, and Irene tells her that she is sorry for what happened with her father. The story is that Raimunda's father raped her, and Paula is actually her daughter and sister. When Irene found out about the abuse, and the fact that her father was sleeping with Agustina's mother, she had enough. She snuck into her house where Raimunda's father and Agustina's mother were and caught it on fire. Irene survived. She hid out for a few days, then went to live at Aunt Paula's house, and helped her clean and cook for the last 4 years until Aunt Paula died. The person actually buried besides her father is actually Raimunda's mother.



Agustina is diagnosed with cancer, and is on a quest to find her mother before she dies. Raimunda never tells Agustina about her mother's demise. The women, Raimunda, Irene, Paula and Sole return to Aunt Paula's house. Irene decides to show up at Agustina's house as a spirit to look over her until she dies.



At the heart of Volver is the family an institution as necessary to life as breathing. In Volver, this institution is seen from the perspective of women. The love that binds families together also tears them apart. Families both empower individuals and condemn them to suffer, force them into lives which go off track because of buried family secrets.



Can you identify the tension between superstitious beliefs and real life aspects through the film? Provide at least two examples.

One superstitious belief in the film was the spirit of Irene. The towns people saw Irene a few times and this seemed to be normal with people who died, because she had unfinished business to take care of. Another superstitious belief was reference to the wind. The East wind the day of the fire at Raimunda's parents house and how it causes people to go crazy.



Overall it was a good film, I enjoyed it very much.

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