In theaters

TALK TO HER. Written and directed by Pedro Almodovar, 112 minutes, rated R. In Spanish with English subtitles. Now playing, Movie City 8, Bangor; Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.

After an interminable wait, in which it seemed that nobody in Hollywood would have the nerve to make a film about brain-dead ballerinas, gored female bullfighters and the men who love them, finally there’s one to recommend – Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her.” What a relief to report that it turned out so well. From Almodovar’s own script, the film does what the director has never done – it takes its central female characters out of the game altogether, sending both into vegetative states of comatose limbo while leaving their male companions to sort out their feelings in the wake of their loss.

If the film was made to make the point that Almodovar can be just as effective telling a story about men as he is with women, then consider that point successfully made. Indeed, “Talk to Her” has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, the latter of which he’s favored to win.

Brought to Bangor by the River City Cinema Society, the film stars Javier Camara as Benigno, a sensitive male nurse whose early years were spent caring for his mother, and who now, as an adult, finds himself obsessively caring for Alicia (Leonor Watling), a broken ballerina struck by a car whose beauty now rests in the antiseptic confines of a hospital bed.

Benigno secretly loves Alicia with a blinding passion, talking to her and fussing over her with the absolute certainty that she is aware of his presence and might one day wake to fall in love with him. Marco (Dario Grandinetti), on the other hand, is less certain about how he now factors into his relationship with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who was gored by a bull just as she and Marco – a smoky, brooding journalist – were falling into love.

Now in a coma, Lydia hovers somewhere between life and the afterlife, with Marco unsure how to proceed. Should he walk away from Lydia, who almost certainly will never recover, and move on with his life? Or should he follow Benigno’s example and remain at this woman’s side?

Leave it to Almodovar to throw in an 11th-hour stunner that turns the film’s issues of morality on their side and sweeps them into a bedpan.

Just as in Almodovar’s previous films, particularly his Academy Award-winning “All About My Mother” and 1988’s “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown,” “Talk to Her” employs elements of pure, undiluted melodrama to nudge its characters toward uncomfortable truths about themselves and the world in which they live.

It’s about friendship, faith and the price of love, and while it may not be the director’s edgiest work, it certainly is his most adult. It joins the rest in being that rare original, going so far as to tuck into the middle of the action a mini silent movie called “Shrinking Lover,” which is so audacious, it’s as outrageous as anything Almodovar has ever conceived.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

8 MILE. Directed by Curtis Hanson, written by Scott Silver, 111 minutes, rated R.

The title of Curtis Hanson’s “8 Mile” comes from the stretch of highway that divides the racially mixed inner city of Detroit from its predominantly white, middle-class suburbs. On a map, it’s an area about the size of a postage stamp, but economically, it might as well be a continent away.

On the surface, “8 Mile” seems to promise a story that will transcend that gap, but it doesn’t, at least not completely. Indeed, it’s the first rap movie to appeal to suburban housewives.

Set in 1995, the film stars Eminem as Jimmy Smith Jr., a scrappy twenty something nicknamed Bunny Rabbit who aspires to get away from his boozy mother (Kim Basinger) and become a rap star. Considering he’s white, that’ll be almost impossible to pull off in this town, but with the help of his best friend, Future (Mekhi Phifer), who emcees a weekly rap battle, and Jimmy’s other friends and his new girlfriend, Alex (Brittany Murphy), he nevertheless has the support he needs even if he doesn’t have the self-confidence to immediately succeed.

Like so much of this unusually timid movie, the rap contest that closes the film is engaging but not electrifying. It lacks an undercurrent of urgency, spontaneity and soul, and, worse, it fails to mine the intensity of Eminem’s best songs.

As an actor, Eminem has presence, but the film doesn’t allow him to fully capture the rage that defines so much of his work. It homogenizes him, which proves especially disappointing, sort of like if Madonna had released her “Sex” book without the sex.

Grade: C

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, Tuesdays and Thursdays on WCSH 6 and WLBZ 2, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.