Volver ("to return") is a Pedro Almodóvar film, so you know there is going to be some verve and passionate female characters. Got both here. Appropriately, the movie begins with two sisters taking care of their mother's grave among a good deal of other women doing the same (some taking care of their husband's real estate, one her own future resting place) as a windstorm upsets their flowers. One (Penélope Cruz, wonderful here) is married with a teenage daughter (quietly providing a good performance herself), who was taken with them for their familial duties.
When her husband is killed trying to rape the daughter, Cruz cries some, but handles the body without any involvement of the authorities (male world) -- the local prostitute eventually lending a hand. Meanwhile, the sisters' long dead (?) mother reveals herself to the other sister with a friend adding some more complications. There is no nudity (we see the dead body of the husband, but not how it got that way) ... that "R" rating is largely for "adult themes," and they come in spades. The overall theme of the movie is the strength and love of (Spanish) women. There is a sympathetic male or two tossed in, but they are mostly out of the way.
This is a movie, as tends to be the case (though I have not seen his films), allows Almodóvar's women to shine thru some soap opera (telenovela) type plot complications. Cruz (rightly labeled a sorta Sophia Loren by some) is a force -- physically as well as mentally, but the strength and will of the others are clear as well. This film is more restrained than many of his flicks, it is not as madcap as some. [See, e.g., Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, concerning the kidnapping of a porn star by a mental patient.]
But, it still is very fulfilling, the richness of the characters plus the fun of the story shining throughout.