All good things.

However, the film falters on a few levels.  A few of the characters are irritating and superfluous.  The screenplay makes a bizarre u-turn which will leave many feeling less enchanted than if it had maintained its course.  There is a dreadfully lip-synched musical interlude that strikes many a false note.  And the focal point of the story shifts far too often, resulting in a muddled mess that keeps the viewer at emotional arm's length.

Penelope Cruz plays Raimunda, who lives with her teenage daughter and husband, Paco.  Struggling to make ends meet, she works multiple jobs while trying to keep ties to her extended family.  Death and senility has eaten away at her family, leaving Raimunda, her daughter, her sister, her aunt, her aunt's cancerous friend,  and Paco all trying to cope with life's hardships.

I am hesitant to detail the plot, even in its early stages, because the film does deserve a fresh viewing.  I will only venture to say that there is a dead body, an abandoned restaurant, a haunting mother and an old familial mystery or two that all come into play at various points.

The first half of the film feels like Almodovar.  There is a mystery and a feminine, Spanish magic that purveys the entire story.  However, there is a time in the film when everything becomes clear... when the magic disappears and all we are left with is a highly implausible plot with too many focal points to allow us to care about any one of them enough.

I appreciated some of the performances, most notably the fantastic led effort from Cruz.  However, I was very irritated by the cancerous friend Agustina.  Her character felt really heavy-handed and over-bearing.

I liked the interaction between mothers and daughters... there is something intensely cinematic about that particular bond.  But the rest of the film felt forced to me.  I never emotionally engaged with it.

I think this film will appeal to the legion of Almodovar fans all over the world, but not nearly as much as some of his other work.  And I don't think it will earn him any new fans whose first taste of Pedro will come here.  "Volver" is mildly interesting, occasionally colorful, well acted and emotionally complex... but it just felt like too many chilli peppers were added to the stew.