Broken Embraces

Audience Reviews

View More

Fong Kok Hoong F @RT29722865 4 days ago Pedro Almodóvar's sprawling film noir potboiler of obsession and betrayal rivets as a blind writer narrates the tragic love story of his past, tracking a doomed affair with his vulnerable muse under the watchful eye of a possessive plutocrat. See more

thiago s @Thiagostone Apr 24, 2025 Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, a história é fraca, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes para fazer o filme ser bom. See more

Liam D @Mediawatcher2003 Nov 2, 2024 An Film Noir Almodovar style with some fantastic performances See more

isla s @RT89656869 Sep 3, 2022 This is a fairly typical Almodovar drama film, featuring Penelope Cruz (but of course). Its a character driven drama and features a good use of music in the background to highlight the tenser moments. The plot features numerous twists. I became a little confused about which precise timeline I was viewing at points, as it switches between different years but then I can't say I'm the best at fully concentrating on intricate film details I suppose. Its a film about guilt and regret primarily, I think. This is a pretty intriguing story (somewhat thought provoking) with good performances, so yes its a good film thats worth seeing, I'd say but not my favourite Almodovar. See more

dave s @RT68722908 Apr 4, 2022 When you're expecting excellence and are forced to settle for really good, it's bound to be a bit disappointing. Such is the case with Broken Embraces, Pedro Almodovar's melodrama about love, jealousy and unseemly revenge. Told primarily in flashbacks, a blind former film director (Lluis Homar) looks back at his passionate affair with budding actress Lena (Penelope Cruz), the partner of powerful business tycoon Ernesto (Jose Luis Gomez), a relationship that will ultimately destroy the lives of all three characters. Cruz is excellent in her role and Almodovar, as usual, employs a vibrant color palette, but the film seems to rely more on sordid melodrama than compelling characters. It's still entertaining and fun to watch, but doesn't feel like it's up to Almodovar's normal high standard. See more

Oct 24, 2019 Penelope carries rage, vulnerability, humility, humour and pain in just those two eyes, maybe that's why they are always looking down. Broken Embraces The writer and director Pedro Almodovar's Shakespearean tragedy is extremely Shakespearean. There is unnerving phase of practicality that you cannot escape. And for that reason it is also a horror for me. There is mythology, there is narration, there are characters whispered about like some holy myth, they yearn for peace and prosperity, yet they are always drowned in their own sin. These things, the old style storytelling is fabricated so smoothly and properly coated in the hip and happening drums that you forget amidst all the rock band, DJ music and fashionable clothing, that they are actually kings and queens. The filmmaking and the celebrity is an excuse for crowning them as royalty. Their servant or call it a slave or a loyal spy, these paws are poking the rulers. What you get now, is of course, old mentality. That is not to say that it isn't timely. It's just that these characters then, not aware or ready or in habitant to listen or match others' perspective, fails to comprehend with them. Hence, coming back to the Shakespeare theory. There is a lot of Shakespeare in the film, for there is a lot of presumptuous thinking. You can see them make mistakes and plan mistakes resulting into us, the viewers, bite our nails, pull our hair and nod our head in denial. That's just good drama. That is a good film. Broken Embraces never fixes itself. It isn't meant to. The film juggles around plenty of relationships yet none of those aren't frowned upon by either us or the characters. What you then steer towards is character building. The broken is not the equation, not the character, not the zest to live and hope for. It is just that barricade between your self-created theories and the truth. That ugly incorrectly-motivated truth. See more

Read all reviews

Broken Embraces

My Rating

Read More Read Less WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW POST RATING