As I mentioned in my review of Bad Education, Almodovar films, like those of many internationally respected directors, are judged by different standards. Nick Schager. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. But behind the style is disappointing substance, a melodramatic story that's as old as Hollywood. The characters develop so incredibly well and the blending of all the stories is so striking to watch. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy In another life, when he could still see, he was known as Mateo Blanco, a filmmaker of some repute. Penelope Cruz dazzles in Pedro Almodovar's latest lusty melodrama. It tells the story (within a … But coming from a master like Almodovar, one can't help but … Film Review - Broken Embraces November 19, 2009. 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’’ is drunk on its divinely sexy and sinister compositions. That is not to say that it is a bad film. The plot slowly unravels itself in a way that would make Hitchcock proud. In fact, at times, it's a good movie. Broken Embraces is a foreign film from the highly acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar about passion and obsession. Penélope Cruz and Lluís Homar star in Pedro Almodóvar's 'Broken Embraces' Sony Pictures Classics By Joe Morgenstern. Share; Tweet; T he employment of façades is a key motif in Broken Embraces, and an unintentionally apt one at that, given that Pedro Almodóvar’s latest encases its old-hat tropes under a superficially stunning veneer. So much for a film that tries too hard to be original. Street 3/16/10 Sony Pictures Drama Box Office $4.7 million $28.96 DVD, $34.95 Blu-ray Rated ‘R’ for sexual content, language and some drug material. Indeed, Almodovar is a cinematic taste who truly must be acquired by anyone who professes a true love for magnificent cinema. Pedro Almodovar reteams with Penelope Cruz, and you have your review right there. Broken Embraces (2009) - Reviews & Comments. 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. Talk to Her offered a story about the incredible power of speech and how it can connect people while driving others apart. 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%. 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. The stakes are higher with Broken Embraces, coming hot on the heels of the sensational Volver (2006, $85.5m worldwide) and boasting Almodovar’s biggest budget to date at $15m. 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. In another life, when he could still see, he was known as Mateo Blanco, a filmmaker of some repute. Forgot your password? Movie Review - Almodovar's 'Broken Embraces' - The Very Picture Of Romance Brace yourself: Things are about to get meta. Review: Broken Embraces. A writer in Madrid telling the audience that he used to be a film director who wrote his movies under the pseudonym “Harry Caine”. Cast with a stable of Almodovar regulars, this tale of a blind film director and how he came to lose not only […] As I mentioned in my review of Bad Education, Almodovar films, like those of many internationally respected directors, are judged by different standards. In the way of so many Almodóvar films, Broken Embraces is built on a system of dual narrative with father/son and gay/straight opposites. Fate, though, took his sight and the love of his life, Lena (Penelope Cruz) in “Broken Embraces.” Broken Embraces was released in 2009 and has generally received positive reviews. Sensual and stylish, BROKEN EMBRACES showcases Cruz’s many gifts, both physical and professional. Robert Barry wonders if this latest Penelope Cruz vehicle sees the legendary director building on past greatness or … The rest of the movie reveals how Harry became blind. Meanwhile Martel, played with tailored elegance by José Luis Gómez, orders his moody son to spy on the couple with his videocamera under the pretence of preparing a "making of" documentary. Deleted Scenes (12 min. 4 out of 5 stars. From his signature "primary colors" sets to outright re-enactments of certain scenes in "Women", it was great acting and a lot of fun. Cinema as a profession of faith. I was delighted to watch "Broken Embraces", although it did seem to get off to a slow start. Though the film offers nothing new for the eyes, its wordiness ultimately acts as a complement rather than a drawback to Almodóvar's masterful storytelling. 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. And I was very delighted to see all the "call backs" to "Women On The Verge" in this film. BROKEN EMBRACES is a Spanish melodrama about passion and tragedy. And I was very delighted to see all the "call backs" to "Women On The Verge" in this film. 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. The film centers around a filmmaker who falls in love with an actress who is the producer’s mistress. 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. It is shot in a way that you not only are watching one Almodovar film but two as there … Gorgeous and seductive, if pitched at Almodóvar fans and perhaps a touch long. In fact, at times, it's a good movie. Broken Embraces is loaded with the kind of incident that makes other filmmakers seem like a plain chicken dinner next to the all-you-can-eat international smorgasbord of Almodóvar. With Broken Embraces, Almodovar's fifth collaboration with muse Penelope Cruz, he paints a cinematic portrait simultaneously as delicate as a flower yet as excruciatingly painful as a dagger piercing the heart. Why is Mateo blind? Chica… "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. Almodovar is so amazingly visual, and there are several unforgettable images in Broken Embraces. 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. ; HD): Broken Embraces' reel of deleted scenes features three distinct sets of footage, and first among them is a failed attempt by a figure in Mateo's past to reconnect with him. (Sex is fun and funny, true desire can kill). Review: Broken Embraces. A romantic thriller of sorts, and a great one at that, Broken Embraces is full of excitement, romance, and a whole lot of melodrama. Film, Comedy. 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 certainly moody, and that's one of its charms. Two figures, for instance, writhe beneath a form-flattering sheet in a way that would make Magritte blush. The rest of the movie reveals how Harry became blind. As it ravished me, I longed for a freeze frame to allow me to savor a shot. It marks a continuation of his infatuation with (a) bold primary colours and (b) Penelope Cruz. There is enough material here, from the rich textual interplay to Penélope Cruz’s reliable vivaciousness (and sweet boobs), to warrant several viewings. on. P edro Almodóvar’s Broken Embraces is a lush, deeply romantic noir dense with nods to films past, yet it plays as if it sprung fully formed from the director’s unconscious. Broken Embraces is a good film from a reliably thoughtful filmmaker. Read full review 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. Review by Peter Canavese Released: (2009) For some time, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar has been on a winning streak, his handsome and comfortably budgeted films garnering critical praise and strong box-office from the art-house crowd. Broken Embraces was released in 2009 and has generally received positive reviews. he sensual pleasures of Pedro Almodóvar's lush new meta-melodrama are the more intense for being fleeting. Broken Embraces. 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 Review. Broken Embraces is a well-written story of a love so precious it hurt. Broken Embraces moves us with flashes of real beauty. and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Broken Embraces (DVD Review) 15 Mar, 2010 By: Mike Clark. Recommended. Especially in the first hour, his lifting of the lid off each new Petrushka doll gives palpable pleasure to the audience. Quite the contrary, it is a perfectly respectabl, solid effort. Pedro Almodovar's latest … "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. 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. Um dos piores trabalhos de Almodóvar, aqui totalmente entregue à auto-indulgência, ao melodrama barato e às caricaturas (o que não é novidade), mas sem a sensibilidade costumeira que normalmente contrabalança seus excessos. Being neither fantasy nor realism, but a cerebral intertwining of the two, the finished product is a truly engrossing cinematic masterpiece. After the movie is over and the trance has lifted, it is difficult to recall just what was so entrancing or even what the film was about. Part film noir, part anthology film, part Douglas Sirk-like melodrama; it's Pedro Almodóvar and his muse Penélope Cruz firing on all cylinders. In much the same way it is difficult to describe a Hitchcock film without giving away too much of the film, the same is true for Almodovar. Fate, though, took his sight and the love of his life, Lena (Penelope Cruz) in “Broken Embraces.” Cannes film festival review: Almodóvar's Broken Embraces reels you in 4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars. Published. Broken Embraces (15) Pedro Almodovar's longest film is also among his least memorable. But the production, when observed as a whole with the director's name attached, is a disappointment. "Broken Embraces" Review : I have heard Pedro Almodovar described as an acquired taste. Broken Embraces is a sometimes distant film that gains immediacy from Almodóvar’s supremely confident visual style and the rush of its stories inside stories. 'Broken Embraces' is a really, really great little movie. BROKEN EMBRACES is an engrossing look at what happens when a man’s life’s passion is taken away from him. Superbly done. 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. Two figures, for instance, writhe beneath a form-flattering sheet in a … Robert Barry wonders if this latest Penelope Cruz vehicle sees the legendary director building on past greatness or merely cannibalising his own work. 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. By. Sign up here. And what happened to Lena herself? But behind the style is disappointing substance, a melodramatic story that's as old as Hollywood. Almodovar, it seems, is one of the few directors working today capable of such extremes without resorting to unnecessary histrionics. 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. 4 out of 5 stars. September 21, 2009. Broken Embraces hardly finds Almodóvar in quite that territory; but it is now not unthinkable that such territory lies in wait. That is not to say that it is a bad film. “Broken Embraces’’ is drunk on its divinely sexy and sinister compositions. Movie Review - Almodovar's 'Broken Embraces' - The Very Picture Of Romance Brace yourself: Things are about to get meta. by Lex Walker Pedro Almodovar has a knack for creating visceral films all the more powerful for appealing to the viewer's simpler capabilities. Almodóvar and Cruz fail to engage this time around. Broken Embraces seems to be a typical Almadovar film - which is very good, to say the least. But the production, when observed as a whole with the director's name attached, is a disappointment. 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. Sensual and stylish, BROKEN EMBRACES showcases Cruz’s many gifts, both physical and professional. It is about seeing. 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. Broken Embraces (DVD Review) 15 Mar, 2010 By: Mike Clark. A melodrama painted in the saffron-and-turmeric hues of a Bollywood musical, Broken Embraces is the Spanish filmmaker's homage to Hitchcock's "Vertigo," that moody account of obsessional love and double lives. 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. "Don't smile …" gasps the ecstatic director, "… the wig is false enough!". BROKEN EMBRACES is a Spanish melodrama about passion and tragedy. Broken Embraces is certainly moody, and that's one of its charms. A lavish, noirish melodrama sparkling with Pedro Almodovar’s trademark humour, Broken Embraces - the director’s eagerly awaited 17th feature - … Its consensus states "Pedro Almodóvar's fourth film with Penélope Cruz isn't his finest work, but he brings his signature visual brilliance to this noirish tale, and the cast turns in some first-class performances." A writer in Madrid telling the audience that he used to be a film director who wrote his movies under the pseudonym “Harry Caine”. The scattered story takes some time to come together, but like all Almodóvar films, it coalesces quite neatly. 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. These flashbacks disclose dark secrets. 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. Broken Embraces is clearly the better film. Robin's Review: B. Harry Caine (Lluis Homar) is blind, a screenwriter and not whom he seems to be. All rights reserved. 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. Quite the contrary, it is a perfectly respectabl, solid effort. He uses his typical ways of directing, which have by now become his trademark. 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. Now that he’s become blind, he has taken on the persona of his alter-ego, Harry. Broken Embraces: movie review ( - ) ( Monitor Movie Guide ) Almodóvar and Cruz turn to noir in ‘Broken Embraces,’ a film within a film that draws on movie greats. Broken Embraces is a film in which the director demonstrates a continuing, virtuoso fluency in a cinematic language that he himself invented. The sheer, gorgeous style of Broken Embraces is what is so seductive; with his cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, Almodóvar conjures a vivid, … Street 3/16/10 Sony Pictures Drama Box Office $4.7 million $28.96 DVD, $34.95 Blu-ray Rated ‘R’ for sexual content, language and some drug material. 11 years ago. Broken Embraces is not a bad movie. Pedro Almodóvar embroiders his career themes – with the help of a hyper-beautiful Penélope Cruz, says Peter Bradshaw, Broken Embraces. and the Terms and Policies, But behind the style is disappointing substance, a melodramatic story that's as old as Hollywood. 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. Cruz delivers a role with wit and elegance, but there's a vacuum sapping the energy she tries to offer. The movie confesses its obsession upfront. "Broken Embraces" is a voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. From his signature "primary colors" sets to outright re-enactments of certain scenes in "Women", it was great acting and a lot of fun. Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. Now that he’s become blind, he has taken on the persona of his alter-ego, Harry. Online reviewers have written 659 reviews, giving Broken Embraces (2009) an average rating of 73%. "Broken Embraces" is certainly moody, and that's one of its charms. I was delighted to watch "Broken Embraces", although it did seem to get off to a slow start. Whereas Nine is inconsequential, miscast and littered with forgettable songs, Broken Embraces is neatly lined with unabashed melodrama, lush camerawork and narrative suspense. Pedro Almodóvar reunites with Penélope Cruz for a … But Broken Embraces shows Almodóvar in a rather Hitchcockian mode of controlled play, opaque and melancholy psychological ripples, and intermittent threat. The thoroughly strange "Restaurant without a View" is a drastically different take on Mateo's birthday dinner, one that awkwardly enables his only friends to experience something … Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! The sensual pleasures of Pedro Almodóvar's lush new meta-melodrama are the more intense for being fleeting. This is a world in which the warm spontaneity of a Marilyn Monroe would not have wide room to breathe. While I'm not sure it rests in the top percentile of his work, it's a daring, … Broken Embraces is not a bad movie. 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. The streak continues with "Broken Embraces," though with less force. Embraces occasionally feels like Pedro’s settling on old grooves in lieu of finding new moves.The action cuts between 1994 and now. After the movie is over and the trance has lifted, it is difficult to recall just what was so entrancing or even what the film was about. Stars Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Bianca Portillo. Review. Stars Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Bianca Portillo. Time Out says. Online reviewers have written 659 reviews, giving Broken Embraces (2009) an average rating of 73%. Copyright © Fandango. Indeed, Broken Embraces mirrors our own - but brightly. 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. With his usual excellent cast, and of-late muse Penelope … But somehow, instead of setting up house in our memory it departs quickly and lightly when it is done. 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. Photograph: © Emilio Pereda/Paola Ardizzoni. It's an embrace I want to submit to. For his 17th film, Pedro Almodovar doesn’t exactly break new ground with “Broken Embraces,” instead fine tuning his gifts and decadent cinematic appetites to a satisfying routine. Lluís Homar plays a blind screenwriter in present-day Madrid with the assumed name "Harry Caine"; while still sighted, he was once a distinguished movie director working under his real name, Mateo Blanco. 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. Robin's Review: B. Harry Caine (Lluis Homar) is blind, a screenwriter and not whom he seems to be. Broken Embraces is a cool, melancholic movie, only occasionally funny, and highly erotic in a rather chilly manner. 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. Continues the director's streak of reliably elegant, original works, making the case, once again, that there are few other European directors working today who can match his particular blend of thought-provoking, artful, yet wholly accessible cinema. Don't have an account? Read the Empire Movie review of Broken Embraces. It currently holds a score of 76 (generally favorable reviews) on Metacritic. It marks a continuation of his alter-ego, Harry right there Blanco, a screenwriter and whom! Amazingly visual, and more delivered right to your inbox `` … wig... Is fun and funny, and more delivered right to your inbox, melancholic movie, only funny! Continuation of his infatuation with ( a ) bold primary colours and ( b ) Penelope Cruz vehicle the! But brightly persona of his infatuation with ( a ) bold primary colours and ( b Penelope! Gives palpable pleasure to the viewer 's simpler capabilities and stylish, Broken Embraces was in... 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