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Movies / In Theaters / Broken Embraces
Broken Embraces

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Broken Embraces (2009)

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Reviews Counted:92

Fresh:77

Rotten:15

Average Rating:6.9/10

Consensus: 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.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for sexual content, language and some drug material

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Nov 20, 2009 Limited

Box Office: $596,723

Synopsis: A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car rash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he not only lost his sight, he also lost , thef his... A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car rash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he not only lost his sight, he also lost , thef his life.

Lena love o This man uses two names: Harry Caine, a playful pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts, and Mateo Blanco, his real name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his seudonym, Harry Caine. If he can’t direct films he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena. In the present day, Harry Caine lives thanks to the scripts he writes and to the help he gets rom his faithful former production manager, Judit García, and from Diego, her son, his secretary, typist and guide. Since he decided to live and tell stories, Harry is an active, attractive blind man who has developed all his other senses in order to enjoy life, on a basis of irony and self‐induced amnesia. He has erased from his biography any trace of his first identity, Mateo Blanco. One night Diego has an accident and Harry takes care of him (his mother, Judit, is out of Madrid and they decide not to tell her anything so as not to alarm her). During the first nights of his convalescence, Diego asks him about the time when he answered to the name of Mateo Blanco, after a moment of astonishment Harry can’t refuse and he tells Diego hat happened fourteen years before with the idea of entertaining him, just as a father tells his little child a story so that he’ll fall asleep. The story of Mateo, Lena,

Judit and Ernesto Martel is a story of “amour fou”, dominated by fatality, jealously, the abuse of power, treachery and a guilt complex. A moving and terrible story, the most expressive image of which is the photo of two lovers embracing, torn into a thousand pieces. --© Sony Pictures Classics
[More]

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Lola Dueñas, Ángela Molina

Starring: Penélope Cruz, Lluis Homar, Lola Dueñas, Ángela Molina, Carlos Leal, Ruben Ochandiano, Rossy De Palma, Tamar Novas, Blanca Portillo, Kiti Manver, Chus Lampreave

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Screenwriter: Pedro Almodóvar
Producer: Agustin Almodovar
Composer: Alberto Iglesias
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics

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Reviews for Broken Embraces

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All the performances in Broken Embraces are brilliant, none more so than from Cruz (who is maturing in Almodovar's films into a classic actress) and Homar (a smooth, cultured presence on screen).

Full Review Source: Jam! Movies | comment Comment
12/18/09
Bruce Kirkland
Bruce Kirkland
Jam! Movies

While Cruz acquits herself capably, this is, necessarily, an exercise in virtuosic superficiality.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
12/18/09
Liam Lacey
Liam Lacey
Globe and Mail
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Even though it may not stand among Almodóvar's best, it's still a wildly enjoyable, sumptuous, and rewarding film.

Full Review Source: Movie Retriever | comment Comment
12/18/09
Brian Tallerico
Brian Tallerico
Movie Retriever

The work of a filmmaker at the peak of his powers and is one of the few genuine must-sees of the season.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment Comment
12/18/09
Peter Sobczynski
Peter Sobczynski
eFilmCritic.com

Amid all this dazzling artifice, the film's most authentic source of power comes from its star.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
12/17/09
Jan Stuart
Jan Stuart
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Cruz is creased and bent by the pressures the movie’s hectic plot pounds her with. She is never less than ‘perfect’, but she also deeply human and no longer impossible… and that’s movie magic.

Full Review Source: sbs.com.au | comment Comment
12/17/09
Peter Galvin
Peter Galvin
sbs.com.au

A cubist soap opera with enough time-shifted twists and turns to induce travel sickness, Broken Embraces is a distinctly disposable offering from Almodovar. Nevertheless, even his throwaway efforts would be considered absolute keepers by most filmmakers.

Full Review Source: Herald Sun (Australia) | comment Comment
12/17/09
Leigh Paatsch
Leigh Paatsch
Herald Sun (Australia)

Spain's best-known living director Pedro Almodovar ranks among the modern masters of melodrama -- as he demonstrates once again in Broken Embraces

Full Review Source: The Age (Australia) | comment Comment
12/17/09
Jake Wilson
Jake Wilson
The Age (Australia)

The beauty of Broken Embraces is the joy Almodóvar brings to his storytelling. The movie is as personal and rewarding a contribution to his remarkable body of work as All About My Mother and Talk to Her.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Examiner | comment Comment
12/17/09
Rossiter Drake
Rossiter Drake
San Francisco Examiner

Almodovar could've played it entirely for laughs, with a flick of his wrist and a tonal adjustment. It's best he didn't, though. The movie putters near the end, but it's a film lover's delight.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
12/17/09
Michael Phillips
Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

While it lacks the punchy comedy of Volver and the aching sadness of Bad Education, Broken Embraces remains a real treat for fans of the director.

Full Review Source: Concrete Playground | comment Comment
12/14/09
Kate Jinx
Kate Jinx
Concrete Playground

Broken Embraces is Almodovar on autopilot.

Full Review Source: Sunday Mail (Australia) | comment Comment
12/14/09
Colin Newton
Colin Newton
Sunday Mail (Australia)

Sorry, Pedro, but this tepid trudge through the shallow stuff of men is most remarkable for being such a dramatic under-performer.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine Australasia | comment Comment
12/14/09
Hilton Thomas
Hilton Thomas
Empire Magazine Australasia

Even though it may not be Almodovar’s best film, it is still eminently watchable and thoroughly enjoyable.

Full Review Source: At the Movies (Australia) | comment Comment
12/13/09
Margaret Pomeranz
Margaret Pomeranz
At the Movies (Australia)

Hypnotic beauty and emotion reveal the Spanish director to be still at the height of his powers.

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
12/13/09
Paul Byrnes
Paul Byrnes
Sydney Morning Herald

In Broken Embraces, his vibrant new mixed genre thriller, he is out to entertain and intrigue. Almodovar also wants to tell us something about desire and his love of cinema.

Full Review Source: FILMINK (Australia) | comment Comment
12/13/09
Julian Wood
Julian Wood
FILMINK (Australia)

Tending to meander at times, there's still plenty to enjoy if typical Almodovar multiple narratives don't confuse you.

Full Review Source: Courier Mail (Australia) | comment Comment
12/13/09
Des Partridge
Des Partridge
Courier Mail (Australia)

Pedro Almodovar delivers yet another visually rich and quirky viewing experience with the release of his 17th big screen feature.

Full Review Source: Sunday Times (Australia) | comment Comment
12/13/09
Gavin Bond
Gavin Bond
Sunday Times (Australia)

The sure cinematic hand of Pedro Almodóvar falters and fumbles here as he attempts to fuse together a melodrama with a thriller plus something of a spiritual journey for his central character, Mateo ... superbly portrayed by Lluis Homar

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
12/12/09
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

With its themes of revenge, sexual obsession, love and jealousy, Pedro Almodóvar follows his own tried and true recipe for grand melodrama...characters spin complex webs. It's engaging and involving, although it is not Almodóvar's best work

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
12/12/09
Louise Keller
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile
 
 
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