A romantic thriller of sorts, and a great one at that, Broken Embraces is full of excitement, romance, and a whole lot of melodrama. As it ravished me, I longed for a freeze frame to allow me to savor a shot. Almodovar, it seems, is one of the few directors working today capable of such extremes without resorting to unnecessary histrionics. Broken Embraces Review. on. Playing an unhappily married actress portraying an Audrey Hepburn-like waif in the movie within this Spanish-language movie, she’s able to access a gamut of expressions with a tilt of her head and an upturn of her mouth. The streak continues with "Broken Embraces," though with less force. 'Broken Embraces' is a really, really great little movie. Pundits have complained that Broken Embraces just retreads the director's old ideas; I see it more as variations on a theme – familiar, but still engrossing. The rest of the movie reveals how Harry became blind. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Part film noir, part anthology film, part Douglas Sirk-like melodrama; it's Pedro Almodóvar and his muse Penélope Cruz firing on all cylinders. (Sex is fun and funny, true desire can kill). Robert Barry wonders if this latest Penelope Cruz vehicle sees the legendary director building on past greatness or merely cannibalising his own work. Broken Embraces moves us with flashes of real beauty. If the "mature" period of Almodóvar's career is levelling out, it is still producing intensely intelligent and watchable films, although observers are entitled to notice that Almodóvar is keen to stress the sexual attractiveness and prowess of older men. Pedro Almodovar's latest … "Broken Embraces" is certainly moody, and that's one of its charms. Cinema as a profession of faith. This is the bewitching Lena, short of course for Magdalena, played by Penélope Cruz, whose beauty here reaches a swooningly hyper-real state, a camp mirage of Hollywood loveliness, especially in the scene in which she tries on various costumes and styles in the dressing room mirror, experimenting with a platinum-blonde Marilyn look. 4 out of 5 stars. Quite the contrary, it is a perfectly respectabl, solid effort. As I mentioned in my review of Bad Education, Almodovar films, like those of many internationally respected directors, are judged by different standards. This is Ray, a sulky gay man played by Rubén Ochandiano, looking in the 90s like someone David Walliams might portray in a TV   comedy called Little Spain. So one could speak of Broken Embraces.Pedro Almodovar, as an educated cinephile having assimilated his influences well, from Hitchcock to Eisenstein, while passing by Rossellini and himself, delivers a film noir of protean richness. In another life, when he could still see, he was known as Mateo Blanco, a filmmaker of some repute. Two figures, for instance, writhe beneath a form-flattering sheet in a … Photograph: © Emilio Pereda/Paola Ardizzoni. Nick Schager. Being neither fantasy nor realism, but a cerebral intertwining of the two, the finished product is a truly engrossing cinematic masterpiece. The characters develop so incredibly well and the blending of all the stories is so striking to watch. Mirror's Image: Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces Review Robert Barry , August 26th, 2009 09:48 Almodovar's latest is a slick and seductive film about filmmaking. Since her star-making turn in Volver, Cruz has evolved into a great actress, whose films the audience longs to return to: she and Almodóvar have created whole and complete worlds. Broken Embraces is a well-written story of a love so precious it hurt. Online reviewers have written 659 reviews, giving Broken Embraces (2009) an average rating of 73%. Broken Embraces was released in 2009 and has generally received positive reviews. Broken Embraces is not a bad movie. Some say Broken Embraces pays homage to Hitchcock and to be sure there is here, when it comes to romance and desire, a shared sense of danger and intrigue, as well as an eye-popping colour scheme seemingly gleaned from Vertigo. "Broken Embraces" marks Almodovar's first self homage, moving from the overwrought melodramas of Douglas Sirk to the equally over-the-top telenovella style of "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", quoted here as a film within a film. TweetEmail TweetEmail 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. Quite the contrary, it is a perfectly respectabl, solid effort. The older I get, the more cine-literate and the more modulating dramas that I've personally encountered, the more richly I experience and cherish within Almodovar's delightfully vivacious, deeply affirming and quintessentially melodramatic cinema. Review. Broken Embraces (2009) - Reviews & Comments. For Broken Embraces, however, the heat seems to have cooled.If Volver was the peak of the Almodovar/Cruz collaboration, then Broken Embraces is the beginning of the descent down the other side of the mountain. Broken Embraces (DVD Review) 15 Mar, 2010 By: Mike Clark. “Broken Embraces’’ is drunk on its divinely sexy and sinister compositions. That is not to say that it is a bad film. Broken Embraces is certainly moody, and that's one of its charms. But behind the style is disappointing substance, a melodramatic story that's as old as Hollywood. The sheer, gorgeous style of Broken Embraces is what is so seductive; with his cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, Almodóvar conjures a vivid, rich palette of colours, which have the texture of something by Alfred Hitchcock or Douglas Sirk, but his handling of the material is so confident and distinctive that it goes beyond pastiche. But coming from a master like Almodovar, one can't help but … Broken Embraces is a foreign film from the highly acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar about passion and obsession. From his signature "primary colors" sets to outright re-enactments of certain scenes in "Women", it was great acting and a lot of fun. Sign up here. Like Oscar Wilde's famous cigarette, it is a perfect type of pleasure which leaves one not   unsatisfied exactly but with a feeling that its substance has vanished into the air like smoke. While its self referencing love of cinema is a feast for any cinephile, I can't help but feel that the film ultimately just runs out of gas. Broken Embraces is clearly the better film. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. Indeed, Almodovar is a cinematic taste who truly must be acquired by anyone who professes a true love for magnificent cinema. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. The plot slowly unravels itself in a way that would make Hitchcock proud. September 21, 2009. So much for a film that tries too hard to be original. Read full review In fact, at times, it's a good movie. Why is Mateo blind? The scattered story takes some time to come together, but like all Almodóvar films, it coalesces quite neatly. Overall, cinema-goers and film critics broadly agree on the merits of the movie, with critics giving it an average score of 75% and users giving an average score of 74%. Broken Embraces is a film in which the director demonstrates a continuing, virtuoso fluency in a cinematic language that he himself invented. A lavish, noirish melodrama sparkling with Pedro Almodovar’s trademark humour, Broken Embraces - the director’s eagerly awaited 17th feature - … The entire third act is anticlimactic and forgettable, and one has to wonder why Mr. Almodóvar has to let his penchant for melodrama ruin a well executed noir. 4 out of 5 stars. It tells the story (within a … Cast with a stable of Almodovar regulars, this tale of a blind film director and how he came to lose not only […] With Broken Embraces, he certainly does not disappoint, it still has that classic Almodóvar magic, with sexual exploration and magnified emotion playing a big role. Broken Embraces shows Almodóvar at his most self-indulgent and self-referential... [but] the film's cinematography is bewitching and Cruz has never been more incandescently gorgeous. Review In A Nutshell: If I started my journey with Almodovar with Broken Embraces, I probably wouldn’t have wanted to explore further into his filmography. Sensual and stylish, BROKEN EMBRACES showcases Cruz’s many gifts, both physical and professional. But Broken Embraces shows Almodóvar in a rather Hitchcockian mode of controlled play, opaque and melancholy psychological ripples, and intermittent threat. But the production, when observed as a whole with the director's name attached, is a disappointment. He hears news of the death of Ernesto Martel, a controversial Chilean financier who bankrolled his last movie as a director, and flashbacks take us to this heady period in the 1990s when in return for the plutocrat's lavish funding, Mateo cast Martel's mistress in the lead role, and had a passionate affair with her. From his signature "primary colors" sets to outright re-enactments of certain scenes in "Women", it was great acting and a lot of fun. For Broken Embraces, however, the heat seems to have cooled.If Volver was the peak of the Almodovar/Cruz collaboration, then Broken Embraces is the beginning of the descent down the other side of the mountain. BROKEN EMBRACES is an engrossing look at what happens when a man’s life’s passion is taken away from him. It currently holds a score of 76 (generally favorable reviews) on Metacritic. Online reviewers have written 659 reviews, giving Broken Embraces (2009) an average rating of 73%. “Broken Embraces’’ is drunk on its divinely sexy and sinister compositions. And with his editor, José Salcedo, he moves back and forth between the past and the present with a miraculous fluidity, and these seamless transitions are what induce the film's pleasurably dizzy, woozy quality, a subtle molestation of the audience's inner ear. and the Terms and Policies, Broken Embraces. Broken Embraces is a cool, melancholic movie, only occasionally funny, and highly erotic in a rather chilly manner. But the production, when observed as a whole with the director's name attached, is a disappointment. In another life, when he could still see, he was known as Mateo Blanco, a filmmaker of some repute. Broken Embraces: On General Release Friday 28th August 2009 Pedro Almodovar once confessed to becoming a little enamored with Penelope Cruz, the leading lady of his last feature Volver during filming. Gorgeous and seductive, if pitched at Almodóvar fans and perhaps a touch long. I was delighted to watch "Broken Embraces", although it did seem to get off to a slow start. The film has received generally positive reviews by critics; review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 81% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 152 reviews. The film centers around a filmmaker who falls in love with an actress who is the producer’s mistress. Broken Embraces seems to be a typical Almadovar film - which is very good, to say the least. Copyright © Fandango. 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