Hable con ella (Talk to Her) is the story of four lives leaning towards his/her destiny in every direction. The film begins with two ballerinas,performing in a very dramatic play. As the performance progresses, the two male characters (Benigno and Marco)are sitting right next to each other. The interesting part is that neither one of them realizes it until Benigno (played by Javier Camara) turns his head sideways and takes a glance at Marco. After that, Benigno continued to watch the play.
When the play was over, Marco (plyed by Dario Grandinetti)drove to a near bar to get himself a drink. As he was sitting at a table, waiting for it, he spotted Lydia (played by Rosario Flores) sitting on a bar strool, drinking ang talking to another man. So Marco casually walks up to her and tells her that he would like to have a word with her. When the two of them were done with his/her drink, Marco offered to give Lydia a ride home. As they were in the car, Marco started to ask Lydia some personal questions about herself and I think the guy that she was with in the bar. So they had a little argument until they reached her house. However, when Lydia walked into her home, her ran out of the house, beack into Marco's car and screaming "there's a snake in my kitchen." She was in such of shock that she didn't know what to do. So Marco got out of the car, went into the house and killed the snake. On his way out, he grabbed her purse and went back to the car. She told him to take her to a hotel because after what just happened, she was too afraid to go back into her house. So they drove to an all night hotel where Lydia would have to sleep and wake up wearing the same clothes that she wore when she came to the hotel. Although they didn't sleep with each other, the relationship between them became evident.
Marco is a journalist who is still mourning a ten year old love affair that he had with his ex-girlfriend and Lydia is a professional bullfighter who is also just getting over her ex-boyfriend. As the story progresses, the love birds begin this beautiful love affair until that was put on pause. One day, while Lydia was preparing to fight a bull, she started to feel unsure about something. I'm not sure what it was and who was it about. I just saw that expression on her face. Unfortunately things did not go the way she had planned. For some reason, she kneeled down and pulled out her good luck charm. Then she got and braced herself for the bull. All of a sudden, the bull came charging out of its starting and gored Lydia, which left her in a coma. So the ambulence (along with Marco) rushed her to the hospital. And this is the place where Marco and Benigno meet for the first time.
Benigno is a nurse at the hospital. His soul purpose is to nurse back to health the only patient that he still in love with, Alicia, a young ballet student who fell into a coma when she was hit by a car four years prior to the event. And he has been caring for her ever since. He does everything from talking to her to holding up pictures for her. Unfortunately she can't see them because her eyes are closed do to the coma. He even bathes her along with a female nurse. I 'm sure that hospital had some very policies about things like that.
It turns out that the hospital is the exact place where Benigno and Marco form a bond of friendship. So throughout the movie the two of them draw closer and closer. Almost like brothers. In a sense, like Don Quixote and his sidekick Sancho. I can recall their friendship becoming more intimate on two occasions. The first on was when Marco was giving Benigno a ride home and Benigno said that he wanted to marry Alicia. So Marco told him to come back to reality and get in the car. He was telling him that he couldn't marry her because she' still in a coma. And the second one was when Marco went to visit Benigno in prison after hearing that Benigno lost his job and was arrested for raping Alicia while she was still in a coma.
The movie, in itself was well written, thought out, and the actors did a tremendous job on making his/her character come to life. I have to say that I enjoyed watching it and seeing how a young man like Benigno can go from complete loneliness to having a friend like Marco who really cares about him. I take it he was an only child and it was very difficult for him to make friends as a child. Now that he is an adult, it's much easier for him to meet new people and become friends with them.