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
matthew d
Astonishing layered storytelling with moving acting.
Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar wrote and directed his romantic melodrama classic Broken Embraces (2009) with as much passion and creativity as his previous masterpiece Volver (2006). Almodovar's direction is as vastly touching and innovative in his strange filmmaking style that is uniquely Pedro. The bursting colors of lush reds, warm oranges, bright yellows, and cozy browns blanket Pedro's film version of Madrid with an effervescent atmosphere. You could learn everything you'd ever need to know about production and set design from watching Broken Embraces alone. Almodovar's visual Spanish feasts are always delicious.
Almodovar's writing is refreshing with his singularly flamboyant and sympathetic voice that admirably attempts to give an empathetic voice for women. Pedro Almodovar is always finding a formidable role for his female characters as it genuinely feels like he wants to let ladies relate to his suffering ladies as well as find humor in the absurd situations people find themselves in throughout life. His themes of jealousy, revenge, lust, romance, love, death, blindness, and artistry are wonders to behold as he blends numerous lives together like vibrants inks in one cinematic painting.
Penelope Cruz is phenomenal in her followup to Volver alongside Almodovar's direction. Cruz is drop dead gorgeous with an effortless beauty and natural charm. Her Spanish language feature films contain breathtaking dramatic performances that captivate me with every second of her sincere and expressive acting. In Broken Embraces, Penelope Cruz proves she is one of the greatest actresses of all time. I'll forever be grateful to Almodovar for giving her numerous lead actress roles with a dramatic gravitas to them. He even dresses her in the most ravishing red dresses ever to grace the theaters. Cruz is an undeniable presence on the silver screen. Her every facial expression and body movement allures you and hinting at her character Lena's inner pains and passions.
Lluis Homar is amazing as Mateo Blanco, the blind director with a past full of passion and a life filled with creative desires and emotional mourning. His chemistry with Cruz is lovely like his easy attitude and natural warmth. You'll come out of Broken Embraces wanting to see more from him. Blanca Portillo is excellent as Judit Garcia. Her closed up personality is a nice foil for Homar's expressive Mateo. Jose Luis Gomez is great as the sleazy, rich, and desperate old man Ernesto Martel. Ruben Ochandiano is great as Martel's weird son Ray X. I liked the endearing performance from Tamar Novas as Diego, who kindly cares for Homar's Mateo. Broken Embraces even features a cute cameo from the pretty and funny Lola Duenas the lip reader.
I have never seen a bad film from Almodovar. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Volver, Broken Embraces, as well as Pain & Glory more recently are all Spanish cinema classics. Broken Embraces finds fresh ways to tell a backstory instead of simple flashbacks by cleverly cutting from the perspective of the protagonist to his past lover. Jose Salcedo's editing is so inventive and sharp with hard cuts to another person for a surprisingly brisk and involving 127 minutes. Broken Embraces never pulls you out of its comforting grip.
Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography is lovely with a striking fluidity to his smooth panning shots. Prieto's camera never wavers from Penelope's face for an endless plethora of jaw dropping close-up shots. Prieto's beautiful wide shots capture the pleasant sets and adorable costumes in all their glory. Alberto Iglesias' score is deeply moving with a gentle melody and passionate soundscape like the intense sexual encounters herein Broken Embraces.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Broken Embraces as it's probably my second favorite of Almodovar's films only after his majestic Spanish melodrama Volver. Pedro always makes me both laugh and cry as he has certainly mastered the melodrama.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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
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