Review: BROKEN EMBRACES

BROKEN EMBRACES, a tragic new romance from Spanish director/writer Pedro Almodovár, fits the bill for adventurous filmgoers seeking something different this time of year when Christmas blockbusters are still monopolizing screens. Cast with a stable of Almodovar regulars, this tale of a blind film director and how he came to lose not only his sight, but also his muse and love of his life, is an entertaining and intelligent film that Almodovár’s many fans worldwide will embrace. It’s also a film mainstream audiences should enjoy as well. It’s a shameless sudsy soap opera to be sure, but not nearly as campy in its characterizations or extreme in it’s melodrama as some of Almodovar’s other films. BROKEN EMBRACES is an engrossing look at what happens when a man’s life’s passion is taken away from him.

BROKEN EMBRACES tells the story of 50-ish Mateo (Lluis Omar), once a popular film director but now a screenwriter in the dark, a man obsessed with a doomed film project made 14 years earlier. The opening scene depicts Mateo, under his pseudonym of Harry Caine – an identity he created after becoming blind – seducing a young blonde beauty who helped him cross the street. This triggers disapproval from his manager, Judit (Blanca Portillo) who, along with her son, Diego (Ruben Ochondiano), are Harry’s closest friends. Mateo is told that a wealthy mogul, Ernesto Matel (Jose Luis Gomez), has died and this causes painful memories for Harry – which are only intensified when Matel’s son, a hapless documentarian arrives, attempting to hawk his latest film project. Fourteen years earlier, Matel Sr. had generously paid for surgery for the father of desperate employee Lena (Penelope Cruz), a failed actress who in turn, became his mistress. Lena decides to return to acting and auditions for Mateo’s latest film. As Mateo works with her on the film, titled ‘Girls and Suitcases’, their affair blossoms into an intense romance – yet it is doomed since Matel is not only a jealous control-freak but the producer of the film as well and he becomes dangerously domineering and cruel. Harry recounts all of this in flashback to Diego, showing the audience the dark secrets that have followed him in the years following a fateful car crash that changed the lives of all involved.

BROKEN EMBRACES relies on a twisty plot that jumps frequently from the present to the early 1990s, but Almodovar’s skills as a writer keep things from being needlessly convoluted even when veering from comedy to thriller within the same scene. Fans of Almodovar will get much of what they expect here – dark comedy, rich colors, complex storytelling, and great acting (though there’s a noticeable absence of the flamboyant gay characters that often populate Almodovar’s films). Penélope Cruz again has proven herself an actress of great skill and range, as well of beauty. Cruz underplays the part of the mysterious and bewitching Lena, and she lets her considerable sex appeal sell the character. The other performances in BROKEN EMBRACES are fine, but it’s Cruz that will stay in your head. At over two hours, the film meanders at times and there are perhaps too many extended scenes of ‘Girls and Suitcases’, the movie-within-the-movie, but BROKEN EMBRACES is solid drama that is highly recommended.