BROKEN EMBRACES (LOS ABRAZOS ROTOS) (Spain 2009) ****
Directed by Pedro Almodovar

Pedro Almodovar’s latest entry into high melodrama again takes on similar themes as his last few films.  Multiple lovers, multiple identities, murder, mothers and filmmaking are comfortably blended into a comedic drama of sorts.  One can find in BROKEN EMBRACES variation from the director’s early toilet humour to his brilliant subtlety.  At one point in the film, character Judit (Blanca Portillo) claims she was so rushed that she did not have time to wipe her a**.  At another, Judit catches the protagonist just after a sex session:  “Should I stay or is there an encore?” But the passion of film is the heart of the plot.

The protagonist of the drama is film director Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar).  Or is it Harry Caine, the blind scriptwriter?  Blanco’s pseudonym Caine becomes him and then there is a reversal in a film.  Art imitates life or life imitates art with the line dividing the two growing more ambiguous as the film progresses.  Blanco falls for Lena (Penelope Cruz), the wife of his wealthy and ruthless producer Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez).  The jealous husband orders his camera crazed son Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano) to record on film whatever happens on set with Lena.  This leads to sexual power play, love making, a possible murder and of course, tons of melodrama and comedy courtesy of Almodovar the master.

The film’s best brilliant segment focuses on the underlying theme of art imitating life and vice versa.  As Ernesto watches his wife on the big screen in the hall, his wife appears behind him and speaks to him.  As the camera alternate between her image on the screen and her real being speaking to him, Ernesto has problems on which to focus on.

Cinematic images include Cruz chasing newspapers swept by the wind on the beach.  As she finally grabs the paper, the audience is dead curious as to what is printed.  Almodovar teases too with a few scenes.  In one, lovemaking occurs under the sheets.  But one isn’t sure who the unseen male is – whether it is Mateo or Ernesto. 

One can understand Almodovar’s attempt to mix into the flow of his film the young at heart, but in his fervour, he makes inaccuracies.  He has many young characters in his film, like Diego (Tamar Novas), a part-time D.J.  One segment requires him to be hospitalized from the mixing of drugs (mdma and ghb).  Diego collapses immediately after a sip of ghb while on mdma.  But the two party drugs, in reality can be taken together and even if too strong a dosage, the effect is not immediate.  In the scene before, Diego’s friend takes a hit of meth through the mouth.  (Meth is normally snorted or smoked.)

Almodovar’s true passion of the cinema is finely illustrated in the segment where Diego describes his vampire film to Mateo.  The energy contained in this scene alone hides the fact that nonsense can be effectively transformed to celluloid bliss.

Penelope Cruz is excellent and always at her best in an Almodovar movie.  Here, she plays a character with the high aims of being an actress.  The only practice she gets is feigning the love (and orgasms) for her rich husband and producer of her movie.  But it would have been more credible if Almodovar had cast a younger more attractive actor for the role of Harry Caine/Mateo Blanco.

As in VOLVER, BROKEN EMBRACES contains a lengthy explanation of events related by an older actress.  It was Carmen Maura doing the honours in VOLVER and here it is Portillo.  Almodovar has the segment effectively set in a restaurant to distract the long monologue.  But the film’s filmmaking sequence as an ending that illustrates again the director’s passion for film fails to pack the punch of a climatic ending. 

BROKEN EMBRACES marks Almodovar’s foray into Hitchcockian/Charbrol territory.  The shot of the hand as it pushes the back of Penelope Cruz (causing her to fall spectacularly down the stairs) is pure Hitchcock.  As the aggressor rushes towards Cruz, the audience is forced to ponder whether the next gesture would that be of aid her or to further the initial deed.  Better still is the next scene when he puts her in the car and driving off.  Is he now going to dispose of her or drive her to the hospital as he had promised?  The often Bernard Hermann sounding score by composer Alberto Iglesias netted him Best Composer at this year’s European Film awards.

One of the progressive aspects of Almodovar’s films is the comfort at which the worlds of heterosexuality and homosexuality exist together.  The producer’s effeminate son is never revealed as gay or straight.  Recall in TALK TO ME, the truly effeminate hospital worker that everyone assumed was gay was the one who raped the comatose patient.  One of the film’s ironically most hilarious parts has the son running towards an accident – flailing arms and all.  Truly, there is humour found in every Almodovar scene.

BROKEN EMBRACES contain lots of movie references to delight film aficionados.  The helpless heroine in the wheelchair (BELLE DU JOUR/EYE OF THE CAT), the car crash (LE MEPRIS), the obsessive voyeurism (PEEPING TOM) as well as direct nods (ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS) are just a few examples. 

BROKEN EMBRACES sees the great Spanish director working in top form at the peak of his career.  Whatever surprise his next film will hold will be a curiosity, but again the passion of film will be an underlying and continuous theme.