Review of Broken Embraces (2009) by Antonis Z — 09 Feb 2010

Pedro Almodóvar has become one of the finest character "sculptors" in cinema and this movie just reaffirms this great talent of his. Nowadays, it's rare to see so well crafted characters, put together into a believable story.

In the past, we witnessed some of the most outrageous and far fetched storylines executed by the talented director. At that time we admired him for his ability as a highly amusing director of those unrealistic and unpredictable scripts.

The most fascinating quality in Almodóvar's direction, even from his first works, was his ability to move his audiences sentimentally, even when the story was way out of logical proportions. Anyway, that was then (let's say until "All about my mother")...

Now we are happy to see a more mature and wise approach.

"Broken Embraces" doesn't surprise with the unpredictability and suspense that we enjoyed in previous Almodóvar's films, but this time we see rare character studies, almost immaculate personality anatomies of the heroes.

It's not just the manifestation of those people passions and their motives that make this film so attractive to watch, but it's their whole character analysis that makes them so "tangible" and true.

Also, the many cinephile references add extra points of charm to this beautiful movie.

If only the main storyline had been more inventive, then we could have enjoyed the most important film of this great director.

The film ends and you have the notion that you would see the heroes sitting next to you.

Cameron might have made a 3D film, but Almodóvar has just mastered another "three dimensional" sentimental feast for our souls.