Almodóvar, Cruz in Fine Form With “Broken Embraces”

Grand Forks moviegoers could get a double dose of Penélope Cruz in films about filmmaking this week, although the River Cinema held over “Nine” for the 12:20 pm matinee only. Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar’s latest feature, “Los Abrazos Rotos” (“Broken Embraces”) premiered in Spain last March, opened in the U. S. last November, and with less than 200 prints in circulation, unexpectedly showed up in Grand Forks last weekend.

A complexly structured, character-centered drama, “Broken Embraces” deals with the enigmatic personal relationships of a blind screenwriter (Lluís Homar) in Madrid who once had been a movie director. A young documentary filmmaker (Rubén Ochandiano) approaches him with a proposal for co-writing his first fiction film, but the writer refuses and his production manager (Blanca Portillo) mysteriously insists they should never again make contact.

The film cuts between the present-day events of the writer in 2008 and a parallel storyline from 1992 with Penélope Cruz as a secretary for a wealthy industrialist (José Luis Gómez), which later skips to 1994. Sometimes it spends more time in 2008 and other times it lingers in the 1994 story for quite a while before switching back.

When the production manager is off in another city, the writer decides to explain his life story to her son (Tamar Novas), and why he now goes by his penname of Harry Caine instead of his real name of Mateo Blanco. Gradually we see how closely related the two plot threads are until it becomes obvious that they are intimately connected on several levels. Later revelations complete the connections and lead to a reasonably satisfying conclusion.

The end of “Broken Embraces” reaffirms the filmmaking process, but this is not Amadóvar’s variation on “8 ½” (although there are various references to it and other classic films within the story). It’s basically a story of love, betrayal, obsession, loyalty, guilt, and catharsis, with the production of a film within the film serving as its background and the glue that holds everything together.

The acting is fine all around, especially Portillo’s protective production manager. Although Penélope Cruz give her usual strong performance, most of the time here she’s just fleshing out the formula character of a woman who becomes a mistress because she needs the money and then falls for somebody else.
The plot Almadóvar’s previous film, “Volver,” was a bit more intriguing and engrossing, and it also gave Cruz a more challenging character to display her talents. Still, “Broken Embraces” remains an interesting film that should especially appeal to fans of Cruz, of romantic mysteries, and of movies about moviemaking.
If the film is gone from theatres by the time this review is printed, readers need only wait until March 16 for its American BluRay release (It’s already available in Europe).

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