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Broken Embraces |  | Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Actors: Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.96
Buy New: $10.63
as of 9/6/2010 14:14 CDT details
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New (46) Used (14) from $7.95
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Rating:  21 reviews
Sales Rank: 6145
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Original Language), French (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Running Time: 127 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 043396331839
UPC: 043396331839
EAN: 0043396331839
ASIN: B002VECLXC
Theatrical Release Date: November 20, 2009
Release Date: March 16, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Harry caine a blind writer reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name mateo blanco and directing his last movie. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 03/16/2010 Starring: Penelope Cruz Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R
Amazon.com
Pedro Almodóvar continues to reinvent Hollywood's Golden Age for a new era with Broken Embraces. A blind screenwriter in the present day, Mateo Blanco, a.k.a. Harry Caine (Lluís Homar), reminisces about his favorite leading lady to his assistant, Diego (Tamar Novas). In 1992, when Caine met Lena (Penélope Cruz), stockbroker Ernesto (José Luis Gómez) had just made the cash-strapped secretary his mistress. First, Ernesto pays for her mother's medical care; then he supports her dream to act. In the process, Caine casts her in his screwball comedy and falls in love, and a passionate affair begins. Ernesto suspects something is up, so he hires his shifty son, Ernesto Jr. (the off-key Rubén Ochandiano), to film the couple surreptitiously, and a lip reader translates their conversations. Caine's production manager, Judit (Volver's Blanca Portillo), further complicates the scenario. By the end, Caine, whose name serves as a tip of the hat to hard-boiled author James M. Cain (The Postman Always Rings Twice), has lost his vision and his girl, and the culprit isn't as obvious as it seems. With Embraces, Almodóvar riffs on Tinseltown classics where greed and lust lead to death. If less successful than Live Flesh, a prior noir, his jigsaw storytelling remains just as riveting and his principal cast rises to the occasion, particularly Cruz, who plays a more passive character than usual and remains, much like Otto Preminger's Laura before her, a mystery that no one, not even the filmmaker, can ever completely solve. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Stills from Broken Embraces (Click for larger image)
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
 Judicious editing could have improved Almodovar's plush but long-winded stab at neo-noir August 4, 2010
Turfseer (New York, N.Y.)
*** This review contains spoilers ***
For me, an Almodovar film is always a mixed bag. Broken Embraces is no exception. On the plus side, you have the consistently excellent dialogue that always features interesting information. For example, at the beginning of the film, Harry Caine (formerly Mateo) with his agent and former lover, Judit, discuss adapting a true-life story about playwright Arthur Miller, who placed his mentally handicapped child in an institution. There's another scene where Harry and Diego come up with a clever idea for a new screenplay--a group of vampires who work at a blood bank. The whole idea is very creative but it goes on too long (like so many other aspects of Almodovar's scenes); and when the two add in all the sexual jokes, I just wondered, is all this necessary?
Some internet posters felt that Diego's accidental overdose was an unnecessary scene which added little to the overall plot. It did go on a bit too long but obviously served as a device to introduce the series of flashbacks which Harry relates to Diego as he tells the story of his affair with Lena. For awhile, Almodovar emulates Hitchcock, and it appears that Broken Embraces is headed for neo-noir territory. Almodovar introduces us to the enigmatic Ray X, Ernesto Martel's insecure gay son, who trails Lena and Mateo around with his camcorder while they conduct their furtive affair during the filming of Mateo's new comedy 'Chicas y Maletas'. And then there's another unique character, Lola, the lip reader who Ernesto hires to try and deduce what Lena and Mateo are up to.
Despite the unique setup and characters, Almodovar is unable to sustain the suspense which we would expect from a film which is modeled on Hitchcock. In a scene straight out of the 1945 tear-jerker, Leaver Her to Heaven, Martel, consumed with jealousy, (and channeling Gene Tierney), pushes Lena down the stairs. The film virtually grinds to a halt after Lena and Mateo decide to flee from Madrid and Lena takes a job at a tourist hotel. Almodovar does answer one of the central questions of the film--how did Harry end up going blind? I suppose it's best that he doesn't have Martel take revenge on Harry by blinding him. It's fate that ends up doing Harry in--a chance car accident that takes his eyesight and kills Lena at the same time. Ernesto does take his revenge by cutting up 'Chicas y Maletas'.
If the car accident seems anti-climactic, the film's denouement appears even more so. Judit confesses first that Harry is Diego's father. She further confesses that she accepted money from Martel in exchange for revealing the whereabouts of Lena and Mateo while they were on the run back in 1994. This allowed Ernesto Jr. to film Mateo and Lena's last kiss before the unfortunate car accident. Judit makes it clear however, that Junior had nothing to do with the car accident--that it was simply a matter of fate. Fortunately, she saved the original takes of 'Chicas y Maletas' and Mateo and Diego get to work on re-editing the 'masterpiece'. Even better, Harry decides to dispense with his Harry altar ego and goes back to being Mateo. In that respect, Mateo's character arc is complete.
The film could have ended right there but no Almodovar has to show us scenes from the re-cut 'Chicas y Maletas'. And no, unfortunately, it's not the comic masterpiece, he would like his audience to think it is! It's just another example of Almodovar's tendency toward overkill in his overall approach toward film making.
Broken Embraces features rich cinematography with a plethora of arresting images. You also cannot go wrong with the actors here from Lluis Homar's low key but intense Harry and the over the top but thoroughly enjoyable Penelope Cruz. With some judicious editing (particularly with the final film within a film), Broken Embraces could have been a much better film. With Almodovar, too much of a good thing is not always good.
 Almodovar's latest love story July 24, 2010
Reader (Boca Raton, FL)
There has not been a film made by the Spanish director Pedro Almodovar that I have not seen yet. His latest film "Broken Embraces" has beautiful Penelope Cruz in a lead female role that she carries on well as always. Although the story is unique, it definitely is a typical Almodovar movie in which he employs many of his ideas from the previous films. Homosexuality, obsessive love, revenge and femme fatale are themes his fans will recognise quickly throughout the film.
This is a story of two people who loved each other deeply and sincerely. Power, money and possesiveness got in a way of them being together and like most doomed relationships, this one was not to last. The mere impossibility of such love to exist makes this story so lovely and touching.
Must see movie, regardless if this is the first film by this director you have ever seen, or one out of many.
 Disappointing July 24, 2010
Hank (Wisconsin)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I was surprised at how disappointed I was with this movie. I like Almodovar's movies quite a bit but the freshness of energy and the unexpected turns of events were missing I thought. To make matters worse, it seemed like Penelope Cruz, who I also like and though was great in Volver, nearly prostitutes herself in this role. I may be getting old but I'm not that anxious to see her doing sex scenes and appearing half nude. Come on, Pedro, give us something a great director is worthy of.
 Not worth renting, let alone buying July 19, 2010
Gogh Me (TEXAS)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I enjoyed Volver so I gave Broken Embraces a chance & rented it one night. It was such an awful, long, POS to sit through. Bad characters, bad writing, bad casting, just BAD.
Awful June 13, 2010
T. Hanson
1 out of 5 found this review helpful
I loved "Volver" so I wanted to see "Abrazos Rotos." I'm glad I just rented the movie. It is awful. It doesn't even come up to mediocre.
Penelope Cruz may be one of the most beautiful faces in today's cinema and a darned good actress, but she is for all intents and purposes, a porn star.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 21
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