Review of Broken Embraces (2009) by Ingela A — 19 Oct 2012

It's enough for many to say this is a characteristic Pedro Almodovar film--it's beautiful, cinematically restrained, richly interwoven and even personal, or intimate, in that glossy way the can do so well. It's a brilliant film in some ways, but it's also weirdly boring, or if that's an exaggeration, it's slow, or dry, or requires patience.

But why make excuses? It's an intellectual piece. It's perhaps clever, but no more clever than many other films of this kind, with the story within the story, actors playing actors, and if you even think it's Shakespearean you are asking for the let down that it is not, in fact, Shakespeare. People who admire, as I do, the films of Almodovar, or even in a different way the films of Penelope Cruz (a leading character here), you will want to at least try it out. But be prepared to work at its messages, and even work at its pleasures. It lacks the zaniness, and even the freshness, and even, oddly (for all its inventive intentions) the creativeness of his better films.