Like the great Spanish director Luis Buñuel, Pedro Almodóvar creates unconventional films and has his own obsessions. Just as the primary objective of the provocative surrealist director was to shock the audience, Almodovar has consistently thrown viewers off the track with bizarre scenarios and flamboyant characters (although his 1999 offering, All About My Mother,was toned down significantly--containing only enough transvestites and pregnant nuns to add a dark comedic tone to an essentially poignant drama). If this signaled an opening cue that the highly accomplished Almodóvar was maturing as a director, this year's Talk to Her (Hable con ella) confirms the diagnosis. Nearly always enjoyable to watch, no other current director blends comedy and drama as smoothly or with as much flair.

Although the plot of Talk to Her sounds implausible and absurd, Almodóvar fits the characters together so well that it all makes sense and draws the audience in. The promotional poster, the movie title, and early buzz all indicated that parallel stories evolve about two comatose women and the men who love them. This is true to an extent, but it only covers some of the surface story.

Sexual role reversals play a part—the two women both engage in extremely physical occupations, while their male counterparts are the opposite. Easily moved to tears, Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is a sensitive journalist, while Benigno (Javier Cámara) is a shy nurse, suffering from his unrequited love for Alicia (Leonor Watling), at whom he gazes from his apartment window above the dance studio during her ballet lessons. Benigno even schedules a psychiatric appointment with Alicia's father in order to see her up close. This encounter doesn't work out immediately, but a paralyzing accident lands Alicia in the hospital, where Benigno fortuitously becomes Alicia's private nurse. He patiently massages, bathes, and talks to his comatose patient, describing her favorite ballets and reading from Marco's travel guides.

Marco similarly has been drawn to another athlete--Lydia (Rosario Flores), a bullfighter. However, he has a real physical relationship with her, catching Lydia on the rebound from a busted affair from another bullfighter. Inevitably, she flirts with danger too closely and is gored, leaving her in a coma with absolutely no hope for recovery. Unlike Benigno, Marco is unable to touch and talk to his girlfriend in her inert state, leading to a connection and friendship between the two men and further developing Almodovar's theme of loyalty. Just how far do bonds of friendship and love extend—and for how long?

Any Almodóvar film takes some wicked plot twists, and doses out surreal humor, and Talk to Her is no exception. The scene that causes the most titters combines elements of The Incredible Shrinking Man and Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex to show how a man may best meet a woman's needs, yet most of the humor results from more subtle and natural phobia and neuroses. Lydia routinely challenges charging bulls, yet she cannot handle the sight of a harmless snake, and Benigno's initial obsession with Alicia and his awkwardness and trepidation upon meeting her will ring familiar with anyone who's suffered self-doubt or lived in any sort of private prison.

What's truly amazing is how Almodóvar injects humanity into each character—how easily he slips from humor to sensuality to poignancy. The younger director would have painted a lightweight caricature of Benigno, yet here his flawed character has a fullness and sweetness to it. Knowing his motivation, his obsessive devotion to his helpless “girlfriend” has a sinister, selfish side, yet he truly cares about Alicia's well being. How the director treads such a fine line while retaining audience sympathy is clearly one of 2002's most remarkable feats of storytelling.

Almodóvar has long created entertaining stories with some of the most interesting characters ever put to celluloid, but Talk to Her demonstrates that he can provoke as well, establishing his future works on the short list of annual “must sees.” This profound comedic drama is anything but comatose and is likely to be on your repeated viewing list, though a few scenes will remain with you long after the first encounter.