Volver (2006) review

Typically vibrant Almodóvar soap opera with just Too Much Stuff in it - though sometimes this pell-mell, mixed salad approach works, he just seems to experienced to throw something like this together. The constantly shifting mood and overly jumbled plot (all centered around Penelope Cruz: the restaurant business she starts and we're to assume keeps, the corpse she has to clean up, the Dead Mother she has to meet and reconcile with) don't work well together, and the dramatic points are kind-of raced over - usually I can "feel" when a movie's about to come to a conclusion, but the credits sequence actually caught me by surprise, like I was expecting more. I like films that have energy, and Almodóvar's always provided that, but the emotional let-down I felt after this ended was undeniable.