Review of Broken Embraces (2009) by Walter M — 03 Jan 2010

One night while I was in college, a friend asked me if I wanted to see a movie. I quickly ran through the movies playing in town and there wasn't anything remotely interesting. However, there was a movie playing about 30 minutes away I didn't know anything about nor did I know anything about the director but I loved the title - "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." My friend readily agreed to go see it and we had a great time. Now, I'm sorry to say I don't have as good a story about going to go see Almodovar's latest, "Broken Embraces." Well, there were the exploding hors d'oeuvres...

In "Broken Embraces," Harry Caine(Lluis Homar) is a blind screenwriter who hears about the death of Ernesto Martel(Jose Luis Gomez), a wealthy industrialist. In 1992, the father of Ernesto's secretary Lena(Penelope Cruz) was suffering from stomach cancer when he was asked to step in to help save him. Two years later, she is his mistress and is trying to get back into acting.

"Broken Embraces" is an exquisite and emotionally complex movie about obsession, as both Harry and Ernesto are intrigued by the same woman, but mostly it is about Pedro Almodovar's obsession with the cinema. It is told from Harry's point of view(with a little assist from what Lena must surely have told him) about how he tries to make Lena into an Audrey Hepburn-type actress for his latest film which bears a close resemblance to "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown." The movie serves as a warning against pretending to be something you are not, and of course not forcing others to do the same. Of course, it is the movies we are talking about, so some things cannot be helped. Almodovar maintains an ambiguous tone throughout, especially with its sudden ending, leaving a good deal up to the viewer's imagination. For example, did Ernesto engineer the disappearance of Lena's father's doctor?