"Volveréis" is a very original film whose characters don't want to make a fuss about their separation and therefore decide to take it all the other way around by organizing a joyful divorce party on the very first day of automn.
The film features a revolutionary take on the couple as it turns the mores, habits and stereotypes of a break-up by showing a modern, peaceful and anticonflictual relationship between two middle age people who simply seek happiness.
It's a film about uncertainty, about being a couple after 15 years of relationship, about the middle-age crisis and the doubts it brings along. The film also brings diferent shades of thoughts towards many subjects such as love, friendship and family relations.
A complex thinking summed up in one simple sentence : "Volveréis" like a statement: "For sure, you are going to get back together" OR the same sentence but with a question mark: "Volveréis ? Like " Are you going to get back together after all?".
Two appreciations of one reality. Just like the verb "volver" which has two meanings: to turn (a page, a leaf) or to return (to go back).
There are many references to Bergman, to Truffaut but also winks to the father of the director (Fernando Trueba, a well-known director himself) who happens to be a key character in this film as he is the one who had the original idea of celebrating a separation ! In a way Ferando Trueba is the father of the constantly controverted idea which made his son (Jonas) make a film.
To me, this film is very touching because it's not only very personal as we have just seen, it's also very sincere. Very sincere in its way of tackling the middle age crisis and the couple crisis or with the way Jonàs Trueba shares his own doubts throughout the film .
There is like a circle of repetition, the circle of life or a vicious circle so to speak, and somehow, as the film goes by we start to doubt whether it's a good idea or not, whether the edit will reveal us it's a fictionafter all. Jonàs Trueba plays with us as much as he's being sincere. For instance, it seems that the director shares his own doubts towards the edit and the relevance of his film (the film we, spectactors are watching !) by sharing the main characters' doubts on their fate as a couple or as indiviuals through the edit of THEIR film that they are both struggling to finish...just like their relationship that is coming to an end !
This film is special because it's witty. It's an anthem to dialogue, to love, to respect. Its main characters barely ever fight or argue.. It's very modern in its approach of the couple, very anticonflictual. The two of them just share their thoughts with sincerity. They somehow love each other at every step of their thinking despite the doubts that are everywhere, in one look, on word or one take.
To the question: are you happy ? One answers yes and the other says no, but both seem to regret their answer right after prononcing it.
This melancholic tone matches with the turning point of their lives, with what they are going through, as they must turn over a new leaf, start a new chapter, begin a new season exactly like this rather sad, uncertain and ending summer in Madrid.
Little by little, and thanks to the characters' personal journey, we understand that life is like editing a film, and everything could be turned upside down: the beginning can become and end, a seeming end could mean a new beginning and with one's decision it can be all the other way around again.
A beautiful, witty film, with lots of winks. I recommend !
