Massoud H
Upfront and without the backstory: This film was like being forced to eat a box of stale, dry crackers with no cheese, no jam, no nothing. And the person serving you the box is a master chef. You know they could feed you something delicious. But this time, you're eating these shredded wheat crackers that are so dull, you're crushing your teeth, pulling away at them. So you feel a little resentful of the chef, but he's shown you such a good time before and changed your life with very many of his meals, so you won't write a letter to his production company asking for what felt like an eternity of your life back.
The backstory:
I love Pedro Almodovar movies so much, even many of the far-out ones that many people don't like, but this one, ooof. I love his other films so much that I gave this film 1.5 stars instead of none. Maybe it was so great that it flew right over my head, but I'm still not sure what the story was. Was it about a sad lady ambling through life? If so, didn't like her or feel that I knew her that well after all that. And I do feel not all movies need a story - some are just visually beautiful and otherwise spectacular. This one wasn't. This film felt like it was a good 5 hours long, and I'm not too sure what happened in those 5 hours except for some sweet, little references to things that happen in other more compelling Pedro Almodovar movies. I do love Chus Lampreave and Rossy de Palma in this and every film. Without them, this would have been soul-crushing.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
08/30/23
Full Review
isla s
This film had the look and feel of a Spanish novella at times but I found the main story quite curious. The cast do well, with Marisa Paredes playing the main character, Leo Macias. I almost admired her for the way she dealt with the situations she faced. There were some amusing moments when family relations are a little, fractious shall I say.
I suppose, ulitmately, its about questioning what you see, in terms of how real things that are right in front you may be. There are some instances of witty dialogue, like when Leo argues with her husband , who doesn't have time for marital issues, that he shouldn't forget his marital duties, adding 'You can't leave me to get mouldy in the freezer!'. I also liked her mother, who is quite a character. The family quirks kept me entertained throughout.
I would recommend this film, for the characterisations.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
слободан е
A lovely film! I include it in my top 3 Almodovar's films!
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Marisa Paredes está perfecta dentro de una clásica historia de Almodóvar. Rossy De Palma y Chus Lampreave hacen de las mejores relaciones familiares que se puedan encontrar en el cine.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/26/23
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Audience Member
F
7.7
[Pedro Almodóvar]
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Pedro Almodóvar can't deal with the middle-ground. He likes to speak only in the high or the low, drenching his films in vibrant, Sirkian style that has to decide whether it's dressing an emotionally tumultuous drama or a light-speeded comedy. His career, beginning in the 1980s, has been long but equipped with as many misses as hits. Almodóvar's best make for startling unison between style and substance, deliberately artificial atmosphere turning more flaming as the goings get rough; his worst still look great, but they sometimes ramble, never going anywhere and never giving the style a place to grab onto. The red trench coats, red lipstick, and red pumps of Almodóvar's distinctly feminine characters are buried in catty conversations, Joan Collins schlock tears, leaving more of an image than an impression.
"The Flower of My Secret" is a quintessential example of an Almodóvar miss, absorbing in its aesthetic but distant in its ability to capture the imagination. Heavyweights like "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "Broken Embraces" rip our throats out with their passion towards screwball zeal/Technicolor noir cynicism. But lightweights, "The Flower of My Secret" being a prime example, don't allow us to think about anything besides how scrumptious everything looks. There is nothing wrong with an obsession toward visual materialization, but one can only stare at a painting before they want to move on to something that knocks them off their jaded feet.
Marisa Paredes portrays Leo Marcías, a bestselling romance novelist who writes under the pseudonym Amanda Gris. Leo, though, doesn't take pride in her work like Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts. She hates it, desperate to be taken seriously but unable to publish anything meaningful thanks to a paralyzing authorial contract. It's becoming impossible to write such fantastical material, considering her husband (Imanol Arias) has no interest in solving marital problems and her closest friends seem ready to betray her at any waking moment. Finding no other way to fix the cracks that rough up her life, she decides to take a job at local newspaper El Pais as a literature critic. Well aware that she will have to eventually attack her own book, Leo finds unsettling excitement in the idea of publicly diminishing her work after years of painful gloating.
"The Flower of My Secret"'s story sounds ready for screwball comedy treatment, but in execution, its plot feels rather haphazard and messy, taking more time to ignite itself through speedy small talk than conversation that actually moves the plot forward. Consider the film opens with a false lead: we think we're about to watch the tragic story of a middle-aged woman losing her son in a motorcycle accident, but it turns out to be a organ donation center training video in production. Scenes like this are amusing, yet they don't go anywhere. As a whole, "The Flower of My Secret" has no problem when it comes to being compulsively watchable. Cohesiveness, identity, authenticity - those are the issues that make the film so unmistakably flawed. The characters spend a whole lot of time gabbing and tearing up, but we never find ourselves entwined in their conversations, moved by their sudden outbursts of emotion.
Almodóvar, though, is incapable of making a movie that isn't stunning in its artistic vision. Photographically and directionally, "The Flower of My Secret" is visionary and eye-poppingly deliberate in its color; missing is interest that makes its look have meaning. But Parades gives a wonderful performance and Almodóvar sustains maturity - there are diamonds to be found in the candy colored rough.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
Full Review
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