BROKEN EMBRACES        

Spain 2008      125 minutes    15 certificate
Directed by Pedro Almodovar, starring Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Jose Luis Gomez, Blanca Portillo

A film for lovers of the director, lovers of the cinema, and for lovers of a great yarn, Almodovar’s luxuriant and involving film noir is something of a departure from his customary camp melodrama.

Homar plays a blind screen writer living under an assumed name in contemporary Madrid.  When he learns of the death of Ernesto Martel, a controversial film financier and a key figure from his past, that past comes back to haunt him, and he is forced to revisit and confront the traumatic events of twenty years before. Then, he had his sight, a successful film directing career, his own name and – crucially – the love of the beautiful Magdalena (Cruz), the star of his latest film: intended to be his masterpiece and bankrolled by Magdalena’s obsessively jealous husband, Martel.  In the unfolding of their complex and heartbreaking tale of desire, control and revenge, Almodovar gives us a sumptuous and satisfying drama, visually lush and sensuous, emotionally compelling. But it is also a contemplation of the director’s own career, and an homage to the art of cinema. Cruz is the epitome of a screen goddess – no other actor lights up a screen as she does, and no other director makes her this magnificent – but she is only one reason to see this intelligent and engrossing film that may yet prove to be Almodovar’s masterpiece.

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