Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 144
Fresh: 117 | Rotten: 27
Pedro Almodovar's fourth film with Penélope Cruz isn't his finest work, but he brings his signature visual brilliance to this noirish tale, and the cast turns in some first-class performances.
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Critic Reviews: 31
Fresh: 28 | Rotten: 3
Pedro Almodovar's fourth film with Penélope Cruz isn't his finest work, but he brings his signature visual brilliance to this noirish tale, and the cast turns in some first-class performances.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.7/5
User Ratings: 19,089
Keep track of your movies and discover movies with friends by adding Rotten Tomatoes to your Facebook Timeline.
A follow-up to Spanish enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar's 2006 arthouse sensation Volver, Los Abrazos Rotos finds the filmmaker re-teaming with actress Penélope Cruz and working on a canvas much broader than those of his previous outings, in terms of genres covered, narrative scope, and duration. Lluís Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when
R, 2 hr. 8 min.
Drama, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense, Comedy
Nov 20, 2009 Wide
Mar 16, 2010
$4.8M
Sony Pictures Classics
All Critics (144) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (119) | Rotten (27) | DVD (2)
While it may not be Almodóvar's greatest work, it still stands well above most other films in terms of intrigue, intelligence and innovation.
This melancholy romance is the first Almodovar feature I've ever really liked, an expertly fashioned melodrama that steers mercifully clear of his usual puckishness and star-mongering.
One failing in the film is how boring it is to watch Cruz pretend to be a bad actress. The comic movie within a movie, which borrows from Women on the Verge, isn't funny.
It all adds up to an entertaining mash of suspense and melodrama.
As long as Almodovar keeps investing such thought and energy in his work, he can play with whatever themes he desires.
The story is twisted and complex, yet it emerges as sleek and unfussy. The characters' actions are grandly melodramatic, but the movie is close and intimate.
Almodóvar and Cruz fail to engage this time around.
Continues the director's streak of reliably elegant, original works, making the case, once again, that there are few other European directors working today who can match his particular blend of thought-provoking, artful, yet wholly accessible cinema.
Um dos piores trabalhos de Almodóvar, aqui totalmente entregue ŕ auto-indulgęncia, ao melodrama barato e ŕs caricaturas (o que năo é novidade), mas sem a sensibilidade costumeira que normalmente contrabalança seus excessos.
Pedro Almodovar reteams with Penelope Cruz, and you have your review right there.
I must be completely dazzled by Pedro Almodóvar's current skills as a filmmaker because I really enjoyed Broken Embraces even though I had several reasons not to.
The broken field running of the film's time line requires each viewer to reassemble the story in his head.
One of Almodóvar's weakest films is worth checking out on DVD for Carmen Machi's performance in the short film The Cannibalistic Councillor.
Writer director Pedro Almodovar and his longtime muse Penelope make movie magic in this melodramatic mystery, Broken Embraces.
While the writing isn't as sharp or as funny as it is in Almodovar's best movies, so be it--it's a hell of a lot sharper and more interesting than most of the mass-produced movies coming out of Hollywood.
This meandering melodrama is too fractured, too soap opera-ish and is just too odd ... even by the Oscar-winning, Spanish filmmaker's usual standards.
Above all, "Broken Embraces" shows how deeply Almodóvar is in love with movies, not just as things to be watched and enjoyed, but to be felt deep in the bones.
Gives us few reasons not to stay to the ending, but the ultimate revelation of Blanco's pain ... disappoints.
A very worthy close-out for his remarkable output of the last decade.
A cliche-ridden exercise that never exhibits any real heart and focuses on characters who never come alive, it also never comes close to living up to the promise of the names in the credits.
In Almodóvar, the past is reckoned by characters of the present, a layering over which we revel.
Standard fare for Almodovar. And I dont mean that in a negative way. This man coasting is still leaps and bounds more fascinating than the pet projects of many directors. It is hyper-sexual, highly-stylized, and has melodrama oozing out of every pore. The production is regal and elegant, with brilliant colors bursting
April 6, 2012Super Reviewer
The scope of human suffering and joy is fervently wide in Almodovar's take on love, lust, and relationships in his first broad genre film. The film showcases a beatific premise of following the love affair of two ill fated star crossed lovers, thrown together in the strangest of circumstances, beating back barriers put
July 10, 2011Super Reviewer
| 29% | The Vow |
| 94% | Mission: Impossible Ghost Protoc... |
| 87% | The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo |
| 28% | Underworld Awakening |
| 85% | Chronicle |
| 65% | The Woman in Black |
| 25% | This Means War |
| 94% | The Secret World of Arrietty |
| 35% | Red Tails |
| 88% | Certified Copy (Copie Conforme) |
Red Tails, This Means War
Trailer: In bed with Zoe and Bradley
Video: Your friendly four minute preview
Latest trailer from Michel Gondry