There are not many stars in Europe just now with a bigger pull than Penelope Cruz and few directors whose new films are more eagerly awaited than those of Pedro Almodovar. Broken Embraces, which reunites the two, doesn’t break any new ground and has a plot that is complicated enough to puzzle. But Almodovar’s flawless technique and the entertainment value of his story-telling ought to be enough.
The protagonist is a film director who has been blinded in a car accident (Luis Homar), in which the love of his life (Cruz) has been killed. His name is Mateo Blanco, but after the car crash he has changed it to Harry Caine. Now he writes scripts and tries to obliterate the memory of the woman he adored. But it is not so easy since he discovers that the producer of the movie he was making before he was blinded had forced her into an affair.
Almodovar moves backwards and forwards in time with extraordinary fluency — even if you get momentarily confused, the process is entertaining enough to keep you watching with pleasure.
There are moments when famous films of the past are recalled, like Rossellini’s great Voyage in Italy and Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, but mostly the action spins along almost of its own volition, with Cruz and other Aldmodovar regulars contributing performances that illuminate it brightly.
Cruz, in particular, is effortless — and no one could say that her star charisma precludes a sharp ability to act absolutely in tune with the character she is playing.
Broken Embraces is probably not one of the great Almodovar films but it shows us a director totally in command of the medium and his abilities, and able to tease us with humour, passion and the sheer excitment of good film-making. Needless to say it all looks luxuriously beautiful.
Broken Embraces
