Only someone as gifted and precise in his vision as Pedro Almodóvar could make a film like Talk to Her (Spanish: Hable con ella), and not have the final result be an overwrought and vaguely perverse bundle of bizarre scenarios. Not only did he successfully tell a story that would be considered grotesque in the hands of someone without his undying compassion and deep knowledge of the human condition, but he covertly made one of his best films, a daring and provocative existential odyssey made on the subject of obsession, which seems aligned with a lot of what the director was interested in exploring at that particular juncture in his career, whereby he was transitioning from the subversive auteur known for shocking audiences with bizarre tales that bordered on deranged, to a respectable filmmaker who told stories that may have been controversial, but where the intentions outweighed the more problematic aspects of the narrative. Talk to Her is a very special film, one that occupies a strange place in the director’s career, being beloved by a large faction of his supporters, but still viewed as stopping slightly short of achieving greatness by the broader population, who prefer to latch onto some of the more accessible pieces that surround this film, not realizing that, in telling this story, Almodóvar continued to progress to a place where he could effectively, and without any hesitation, provoke deep issues without needing to resort to heavy-handed material, with this (along with All About My Mother on one side, and Bad Education on the other) signalling the start of a revolutionary new period of artistic expression for arguably the greatest living European auteur.

The subject matter that resides at the heart of the film is certainly questionable, but it is not without reason. Far too many people have unfairly dismissed Talk to Her as being somewhat depraved, with the concept of two men obsessing over women who are in comas, treating them as if they are conscious and receptive to these advances being the source of an understandable amount of discussion, with both sides of the debate having relevant points. However, to fully comprehend the scope of this theoretical divide, we have to consider not only the person responsible for telling the story, but also his origins as a filmmaker, and how audiences have needed to evolve in their own perception of his work to completely grasp why his methods are effective. Almodóvar started as an agent provocateur, a filmmaker whose entire impetus for creating in the first place was to shock and bewilder, taking the well-worn approach of using bad taste to test the extent to which good taste can be assaulted, all for the sake of seeing how far the viewer can have their perspective challenged. Talk to Her is far from being aligned with these earlier films, but what it does retain is the director’s distinctive taste for pushing boundaries, which he does in a more controlled and nuanced manner, rather than the wildly scintillating methods he employed at the start of his career. This film contains a form of constructive provocation – it takes the form of a tender but actively engaging melodrama that raises important questions, but in a way that is often quite unexpected, which can be the source of a lot of division amongst viewers, some of whom may not find the approach effective, others seeing it as a work of singular genius – and with a film like Talk to Her, there isn’t necessarily a correct opinion in this regard.

In essence, Talk to Her is Almodóvar’s version of a romance, taken from only one side. We’ve seen stories of obsession that focus on individuals who exhibit psychopathic behaviour, whether it be in the form of inappropriate actions or becoming stalkers outright. The director was clearly interested in raising the moral conundrum and interrogating this subject, without necessarily focusing on that particular trope. Rather than painting an objective portrait of two men who are driven to the point of inappropriate behaviour as a result of their bizarre obsessions, the director chooses to place the viewer in a position where we ourselves start to question the morality of society, acting as outsiders peering into the lives of these characters (in much the same way that we can consider the two protagonists as voyeurs, observing the lives of women they are only marginally connected to). There’s a much more accessible version of this story that focuses on the experience of finding a loved one rendered in a vegetative state, but had Almodóvar taken this approach, we’d have not been able to have these very sobering discussions about the extent to which some people allow their underlying infatuations to take control. The film is certainly not condoning this behaviour, but it refuses to outright condemn it in the way we’d expect, particularly in regards to how the more perverse of the two does receive his comeuppance, but not in the way we’d expect. The fact that it is willing to have conversations around consequences does show that there was a sense of self-awareness, and that the actions of these characters don’t necessarily reflect the views of the director himself – but there is always going to be a degree of difficulty in how we decode the message at the heart of the film, which can be a much bigger challenge.

The best way to describe Talk to Her would be as an exceptionally charming drama about the most manipulative and morally ambigious people imaginable, which is something that the consensus would certainly agree with, regardless of whether they found it brilliant or exploitative. An enormous component of this comes as a result of the characters that form the foundation of the film, and the actors brought in to interpret them, taking Almodóvar’s beautiful script and turning it into an absolutely spellbinding work of art through their performances. The actors in Talk to Her were presented with an excruciatingly difficult challenge – they needed to play characters who were likeable in theory, but despicable in their actions. This is most true of Benigno, played by Javier Cámara , who is the heart of the film, playing the obsessive young man who finds himself drawn to a woman in his close proximity with whom he immediately falls in love, to the point where he engages in behaviour that will ultimately spiral into serious legal consequences. Benigno is not a good person, and Almodóvar never implies that he is (as evidenced by the film explicitly showing him having to pay the consequences for what is clearly defined as an outright crime, driven by delusion rather than passion) – but we’re still impelled to find value in his perspective, since he is ultimately a man who fell victim to his delusions, which resulted in severe and necessary consequences. This is undercut by the presence of Marco, played by Darío Grandinetti, is more level-headed, but has his own personal struggles that lead him to exhibit his own form of obsession. Both actors are tremendous, and carry the film almost entirely on their own (as Leonor Watling and Rosario Flores are excellent, but are in mostly smaller roles, playing their comatose paramours), Almodóvar’s writing servicing them exceptionally well and proving to make Talk to Her such a vivid and unforgettable character study.

Talk to Her is a difficult film, particularly when we compare it to Almodóvar’s other work, since it is not easy to justify the perspective of these characters, who are undeniably despicable individuals who are not worthy of our compassion – but yet they receive it anyway, which is a testament to Almodóvar’s incredible work as both a writer and director, whereby he can effectively tell the story of two men with questionable values, and still have the audience feel a connection to them, even if it is one that is intentionally distant and aloof. The questions raised throughout this film are urgent and fascinating, and the director ensures that he balances the many complex ideas in a way that they each receive an equal share of attention, so as not to leave any loose ends, since a story like this requires an actively engaging approach to its thematic content, or else it would run the risk of being seen as a film that condones the actions of its protagonists, instead of carefully questioning the very nature of obsession, which is the primary propellant of the film, and the reason it works so exceptionally well. Talk to Her is a remarkable piece of filmmaking, borne from the laborious efforts of a filmmaker that may have grown more respectable as he has matured, but has retained the same sense of being willing to embrace darker subject matter – the difference is that, unlike in his earlier films that were designed to shock, this one aims to stir conversation, which is ultimately done through provoking a visceral response in the viewer, and forcing us to decode exactly what these sensations represent – repulsion, despair and anger are all appropriate responses, and they ultimately form the basis for this complex and beautifully nuanced exploration of obsession and desire, a subject that may be difficult, but is undeniably unnecessary when we’re looking at the intricate details of the human condition, which has always been at the centre of the director’s prolific and celebrated career.