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'Broken Embraces' blends style and humor

The Spanish import teams Cruz and Almodóvar to blow your mind.

By Thomas Leonard

Published Feb. 5, 2010

When Jackson Pollock first debuted his splotchy paint-soaked canvases, many questioned his throw-it-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks technique as non-artistic. They didn't realize there was method to the madness, and Pollock's carefully devised painting style took a lot of heart in each paint glob to make an impressive big picture. "Broken Embraces," infamously enigmatic Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's 17th film, is just that.

This pulsating hodgepodge of meta-cinema is joyfully convoluted and unabashedly self-referential. It's a difficult genre bend that keeps you on your toes. It's stubborn, strange and honestly one hell of a movie.

"Embraces" is a backstage caper about a spellbinding femme fatale, or is it a slapstick comedy about a bawdy divorcee discovering a suitcase full of cocaine? Almodóvar never gets too comfortable, and the movie seemingly shifts gears every scene until the pieces form a painstaking yet rewarding puzzle. With half the film told in flashback — one that contains two films within the film — you're consistently whip lashed between belly-laugh comedy and heartbreaking drama.

At the center of this revolving door of style and story is former film director Harry Caine (the charming Lluís Homar). Stricken blind and forced into screenwriting, Harry is a quietly complacent soul resigned to enjoying life. That is, until a shady character from his past reappears and stirs questions from Harry's young writing partner Diego.

What unfolds is an emphatically melodramatic tale of passion and deception swirling around the volatile Magdalena Rivas (the always sexy Penélope Cruz). Told to Diego in flashback, we visit the '90s and find Magdalena, trapped in a stifling marriage to much-older mogul Ernesto Martel, becoming obsessed with Harry after landing a role in his absurd comedy "Girls and Suitcases."

To tell more would spoil the fun. Almodóvar has made it his mission to keep you on the edge of your seat. That's the tacky beauty of "Embraces." Its genre-defying acrobatics feel as fresh and thrilling as early Tarantino.

Still, though "Embraces" grips, it rarely grabs — at your emotions, at least. For a film so jam-packed with stylistic playfulness, there are a fair share of resonate moments to pull you in to the orbit. But for the most part, this is Almodóvar's wacky world; we're just here to witness.

But like last year's ultra stylized "Inglorious Basterds," Almodóvar's meticulous attention to detail and melodrama make every frame bubble over with total movie love. He decks Penélope Cruz in Audrey Hepburn garb and crowds the film with homages to French New Wave cinema. Although this wink-wink referencing is a treat for cinephiles, it could serve to merely add to the confusion. And "Embraces" has plenty of that to offer. Playing entirely by its own rules, it's a staunchly bizarre import that is certainly not everyone's cup of tea. You'll likely laugh, cry or think it's a piece of trash.

But this polarizing mystique is one of the film's charms, and perhaps Almodóvar's highest compliment. Like Pollock, Almodóvar has served up a piece of art that's enigmatic and abstract. To some this is infuriating, to others, exciting. In the end, it doesn't really matter. Almodóvar has made a movie that is all his own. It's got soul and it doesn't give a damn what you think. And that's half the fun.