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Pedro Almodovar has been crafting challenging films for a number of years. Best known for Volver, the director has put on the screen some stunning images with the eye of a painter. His latest is one of his strongest, Broken Embraces.
The story starts with writer Harry Caine (Lluis Homar), the pseudonym of Mateo Blanco. It seems that Mateo was a director who was part of a tragic accident. He now lives a life where he crafts stories and scripts with the assistance of his long term production manager Judit Garcia (Blanca Portillo) and her son Diego (Tamar Novas). We soon find out that Judit has some unspoken feelings for Mateo and that Mateo can still catch the occasional lady. We also find that Mateo wasn’t always blind and that he was once a successful director. Then we go back fourteen years. Lena (Penelope Cruz) works as a personal assistant for a wealthy man Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez). When her father gets sick, she decides to go back to her other profession – an ‘actress’ aka call girl. The first phone call she first gets is her boss. He has always known about her dalliances, and has always wanted Lena.
Flash forward a few more years, Lena and Ernesto live together. Though she is happy with the arrangement, she still has desires to act. When she hears that famous action director Mateo Blanco is working on a comedy, Lena wants to audition. When she shows up at his office, Mateo becomes instantly stunned by her beauty and casts her in the lead. Lena even convinces Ernesto to finance the project. Most of Broken Embraces is the budding relationship between Mateo and Lena, affecting both Ernesto and Judit. All of this is captured by the video camera of Ernesto’s son who is hired to craft a documentary of the making of the film. This vicious love triangle, full of vile deceit is what fuels Broken Embraces to its tragic end.
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If Penelope Cruz had not won the Oscar already, this would be her best shot. She’s sexy yet vulnerable, full of life and pain. Every man in Broken Embraces wants to save her but knows they cannot. She has never looked more beautiful and (Oscar be damned) gives the strongest performance of her career. This film is just another example that truly talented individuals can level an emotional response, no matter what the language. Jose Luis Gomez has been around international cinema for years, but with Broken Embraces he shows a new level of acting prowess. As a powerful man who is powerless when it comes to love, the audience feels both his heartbreak and his bitter bile when reacting to his rejection. It is a strong range of emotions bundled into a small time frame. Lluis Homar is just wonderful as Mateo. At the beginning, one never questions his blindness. He does such a magnificent job at being handicapped to the point that you believe the actor actually is blind. When we go back in time and find that he is sighted, it becomes a jarring contrast and proof of how perfect his performance is. This little film should vault him very high during the awards season.
One of the most impressive aspects of Broken Embraces are the visuals. The way Pedro Almodovar lenses not only the emotional ideas but the cinematic ideas gives fresh breath to a tale told since the beginnings of fiction. He honestly captures the feelings of loss with a bold hand. Usually films about films are self-indulgent messes with a ‘woe is me’ attitude draped across the cinematic sleeve. Pedro Almodovar steps away from grandiose pondering and delivers a film about raw emotions and vengeance. Broken Embraces is one of the best of 2009, with or without subtitles. It engages you and keeps you guessing right up to the last frame. There are so few films that do that.
