CINEMA: Broken Embraces

Although not vintage Pedro Almodovar, Broken Embraces is still far superior to many tragic love stories that have recently made it to the big screen. The main reason for this is Almodovar never sinks into trite sentimentality and the sadness of the film is lifted by flashes of humour. It also helps that it stars the stunning Penelope Cruz who is fast maturing into an actress of real depth.

As is always the case with Almodovar, there are elements of autobiography in the film, but you are never quite sure how much of the story is actually based on truth, how much on a hyper-realised version of the truth, and how much is just totally fabricated. Our hero is Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar), an author, scriptwriter and film-maker who also uses the pseudonym Harry Caine.

Mateo – or Harry as he is known when we first meet him – was blinded in a car accident in Lanzarote many years ago, a crash that also robbed him of the love of his life, Lena (Cruz). In order to understand how this loss has shattered Mateo, the action cuts between the present and the past, gradually filling in the empty spaces and introducing characters like Lena’s older lover Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez), and Mateo’s assistant Judit (Blanca Portillo), who become increasingly significant as the story progresses.

Being the master he is, Almodovar seamlessly blends four stories at any one time (including a film within a film) and the fact everything remains as clear and logical as it does is testament to his great storytelling skills. Cruz, as the fragile, brittle, but ultimately courageous, Lena is wonderful throughout and it is her performance that is most memorable, but praise should also go to Lluis Homar who gives Mateo/Harry a bitter (but not twisted) edge that eloquently encapsulates his inner torment.

However, this does not count as vintage Almodovar because it doesn’t have the self-contained feel of many of his previous works – it has an open-ended aura that makes it less thoroughly satisfying than, say, Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, which built its own little world and was perfectly self-realised. However, this is a minor quibble as there is so much to enjoy here, not least the strange, exotic landscape of Lanzarote – Mateo and Lena’s version of a desert island escape.

Dee Pilgrim