Pedro Almodovar's bold, Hitchcockian thriller in the VERTIGO (1958) vein — vivid colors and brittle cleverness wrapped around a dark, dark heart — makes provocative entertainment from material most filmmakers approach with solemn gravity. But rather than diminish the shattering consequences of abuse and betrayal, it situates them in a larger landscape of emotional fires in which personalities are forged, twisted and sometime destroyed. The nesting-box narrative unfolds in three time periods — 1980, 1977 and 1964 — and refracts the same events through several levels of reality. Madrid, 1980: Up-and-coming filmmaker Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) is at an impasse, reduc...
Released:
2004
Rated:
NC-17
Length:
109 mins