| Pedro Almodovar has managed to combine the impossible: the lush soap operas of 1950s American director Douglas Sirk with the earthy, no holds barred neo-realism of 1940s directors Vittorio DeSica and Roberto Rossellini. While pumping wild situations into the story, he keeps his actors bound in painful truth. The actors never wink at the audience or acknowledge they're in a farce. They play it with pure dignity. One actor in particular, the radiant and heartbreaking Penelope Cruz, gives the performance of a lifetime.
Raimunda (Cruz, star of Almodovar's “All About My Mother” and countless American bombs), her sister and her daughter visit a dying aunt. The invalid woman lives very well despite lacking most of her capacities and senses. Aunt Paula claims the girls’ dead mother cares for her. The sisters ignore the ramblings of a dying woman.
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