Film review: Broken embrace

Published on Thursday 27 August 2009 18:59

BROKEN EMBRACE (15) **** DIRECTED BY: PEDRO ALMODÓVAR STARRING: PENÉLOPE CRUZ, JOSÉ LUIS GOMEZ, BLANCA PORTILLO

THOUGH not nearly as engaging as Volver, Pedro Almodvar's latest gets by on the pleasure he takes from riffing on his flamboyant visual style and using his current muse, Penlope Cruz, like an old-school movie star. Such an approach is hardly surprising given this is a film about film-making.

The death of a crooked tycoon by the name of Ernesto Martel (Jos Luis Gomez) is the catalyst for blind screenwriter Mateo (Lluis Homar) to piece together the mysteries surrounding an accident that robbed him of his sight and ended his directing career years earlier. Cutting back and forth between the present day and 1994, Almodvar gradually untangles a confusing web of lies and deceit that started with the making of Mateo's last film as a director: a movie called Girls and Suitcases, on which he fell in love with Lena (Cruz), his leading lady – and Martel's mistress. There's a lot more plot than this to hold on to.

Voyeurism, violence and some precarious high heels all feature, as do references aplenty to Almodvar's early films and classic noirs. The effect is frantic and fun, but too self-involved to really connect.