Film: Broken Embraces
Release date: 1st February 2010
Certificate: 18
Running time: 124 mins
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano
Genre: Drama/Romance/Thriller
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: DVD
Country: Spain
Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodόvar reunites with his long-time collaborator Penélope Cruz for his 17th full-length feature in a tale that explores themes of vision, identity and betrayal. Released to great acclaim, Broken Embraces was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and garnered various other international awards, including a number of BAFTA nominations.
Set in 2008, the story focuses on the life of the blind writer and director Mateo Blanco (played by Lluís Homar) who lost his sight in an accident fourteen years previously. Discarding his original name following the accident, and the subsequent end of his directing career, he adopts the name of Harry Caine – possibly a subtle reference to the hurricane of events that led to this change of name – and spends his days writing scripts and stories. His closest friends are his agent and former production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) and her teenage son Diego (played by Tamar Novas).
Upon learning of the death of infamous businessman Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez), Caine is visited by a young aspiring filmmaker called Ray X, who asks him to write a screenplay about a man who can only rebuild his life after the death of his detested father. Caine, with the encouragement of Judit, turns him down, quickly sussing out Ray X’s identity as Martel’s son.
Ray X’s appearance re-awakens the memories of the events that changed Caine’s life in 1994. When Diego suffers an accidental drug overdose, Caine takes him under his wing while Judit is away, and tells Diego of his previous life as a film director on a film titled Girls And Suitcases. In a series of flashbacks, we learn how Caine gave the lead role to the beautiful Lena (Penélope Cruz), with whom he was having a love affair, and who happened to be the Ernesto Martel’s mistress. Devastated by Lena’s betrayal, Martel plots his revenge, and sets into motion a series of events that can only end in tragedy...
Broken Embraces does not mark new terrain for Almodόvar. The film explores similar themes to some of his previous work, and the director’s shift towards the stylistic reference points of film noir, in particular, was evident in Bad Education. However, Broken Embraces boasts magnificent central performances by Cruz as the doomed Lena and Homar as the remorseful Caine/Blanco that prevents the narrative from feeling tired or repetitive. Cruz’s on-screen charisma is central to the film, and allows the love triangle between Lena, Harry Caine and Ernesto Martel to be both believable and intriguing. José Luis Gómez also puts in a strong performance as Ernesto Martel, carefully treading the line between odious and pathetic in his lust for Lena.
Whereas Broken Embraces is imbued with many of Almodόvar’s typical stylistic touches – primary colours, snappy dialogue, and oddball characters – what sets it apart is the manner in which it makes reference to cinema as a medium. Reprising the film-in-film technique established in the aforementioned Bad Education, Almodόvar spends a significant portion of Broken Embraces showing us people being filmed, filming others, or watching their loved ones betray them on film. Some of the most entertaining moments in the film involve Caine directing a movie that is essentially Almόdovar-lite (the fictional Girls And Suitcases is clearly a nod to his earlier work such as Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown and Pepi Luci Bom), while trying to shake off the young Ray X who is simultaneously shooting a documentary on the making of Girls And Suitcases. Almόdovar presents cinema as the purveyor of truth and fiction throughout Broken Embraces, with the medium being used to destroy one moment (as in the case of the released cut of Girls And Suitcases) and reveal truths the next. In one telling scene, a distraught Martel is watching Lena confess her infidelity on-screen as she enters the room. As she stands behind him repeating her confession, Martel sits transfixed by her on-screen image, never once turning to face her.
Disappointingly, the film’s final third fails to live up to the fascinating premise. Lena’s departure robs the film of one of its most interesting characters, and the film does not succeed in carrying the momentum it held through to its conclusion. A number of revelations towards the end of the film fall flat and do not have the emotional impact one would hope for. Furthermore, various plot strands are tied up in increasingly implausible manners, and Harry Caine’s final transformation appears more of a casual afterthought than the exorcising of demons Almόdovar hopes it to be. The web of intrigue that the film has built up throughout its opening ninety minutes is never unravelled in a satisfying manner and leaves the viewer with a sense of dismay. “Films have to be finished, even if you do it blindly,” observes Caine during the film’s closing scene. Unfortunately, it feels as though Almόdovar heeds that advice too closely.
Broken Embraces is a touching, romantic and entertaining film for the most part, which stumbles just when it should be hitting its stride. The excellent central performances and interesting premise manage to save it from a clumsy and convoluted final third, yet it does not succeed in reaching the heights of Almόdovar’s previous work. NBO
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