Broken Embraces (Los abrazos rotos)

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar will be looked back on as one of the previous decade’s preeminent filmmakers. While this piece isn’t quite the bona fide classic some of his earlier efforts have been, it’s a strong highlight reel of his trademark qualities and magnificent showcase for Penelope Cruz.

The style and structure are informed in equal measures by moody melodrama and Hitchcockian suspense, a combination that results in layered, unpredictable storytelling. Further heightening the genre-bending exercise are the vivid use of colour and elegant production design. The resulting dazzling artifice has a near narcotic effect on the viewer, drowning us in stylistic panache where every frame is a carefully composed piece of art in its own right.

Almodovar’s prowess is personified by Cruz’s star turn. She is able to perfectly capture the emotional cues of the script with even the most understated of action and is comfortable expressing the sensuality inherent to the story.

This is a film aimed at pre-existing Almodovar fans, evidenced by references he makes to his earlier works throughout. However, the director has now mastered his personal bag of tricks to a level where even the uninitiated will come away savouring certain moments.

By Andreas Heinemann, Flicks.co.nz