Broken Embraces

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Liam D An Film Noir Almodovar style with some fantastic performances Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/02/24 Full Review Maria F One of my favorite movies. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/26/23 Full Review isla s This is a fairly typical Almodovar drama film, featuring Penelope Cruz (but of course). Its a character driven drama and features a good use of music in the background to highlight the tenser moments. The plot features numerous twists. I became a little confused about which precise timeline I was viewing at points, as it switches between different years but then I can't say I'm the best at fully concentrating on intricate film details I suppose. Its a film about guilt and regret primarily, I think. This is a pretty intriguing story (somewhat thought provoking) with good performances, so yes its a good film thats worth seeing, I'd say but not my favourite Almodovar. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review dave s When you're expecting excellence and are forced to settle for really good, it's bound to be a bit disappointing. Such is the case with Broken Embraces, Pedro Almodovar's melodrama about love, jealousy and unseemly revenge. Told primarily in flashbacks, a blind former film director (Lluis Homar) looks back at his passionate affair with budding actress Lena (Penelope Cruz), the partner of powerful business tycoon Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez), a relationship that will ultimately destroy the lives of all three characters. Cruz is excellent in her role and Almodovar, as usual, employs a vibrant color palette, but the film seems to rely more on sordid melodrama than compelling characters. It's still entertaining and fun to watch, but doesn't feel like it's up to Almodovar's normal high standard. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member Penelope carries rage, vulnerability, humility, humour and pain in just those two eyes, maybe that's why they are always looking down. Broken Embraces The writer and director Pedro Almodovar's Shakespearean tragedy is extremely Shakespearean. There is unnerving phase of practicality that you cannot escape. And for that reason it is also a horror for me. There is mythology, there is narration, there are characters whispered about like some holy myth, they yearn for peace and prosperity, yet they are always drowned in their own sin. These things, the old style storytelling is fabricated so smoothly and properly coated in the hip and happening drums that you forget amidst all the rock band, DJ music and fashionable clothing, that they are actually kings and queens. The filmmaking and the celebrity is an excuse for crowning them as royalty. Their servant or call it a slave or a loyal spy, these paws are poking the rulers. What you get now, is of course, old mentality. That is not to say that it isn't timely. It's just that these characters then, not aware or ready or in habitant to listen or match others' perspective, fails to comprehend with them. Hence, coming back to the Shakespeare theory. There is a lot of Shakespeare in the film, for there is a lot of presumptuous thinking. You can see them make mistakes and plan mistakes resulting into us, the viewers, bite our nails, pull our hair and nod our head in denial. That's just good drama. That is a good film. Broken Embraces never fixes itself. It isn't meant to. The film juggles around plenty of relationships yet none of those aren't frowned upon by either us or the characters. What you then steer towards is character building. The broken is not the equation, not the character, not the zest to live and hope for. It is just that barricade between your self-created theories and the truth. That ugly incorrectly-motivated truth. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Audience Member Pedro aldomovar in serious mood downbeat lacking the joie de vivre of earlier works, however 2 great performances from the leads raise this complex tale beyond the normal fare. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/23 Full Review Read all reviews

Broken Embraces

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