The Flower Of My Secret

Where once Pedro Almodovar was content to make knowing, candy-colored pastiches of Hollywood melodramas a la Douglas Sirk, he now seems to be channeling Sirk, or at least trying. The result is a woman's picture with a few -- precious few -- contemporary flourishes. Leo (Marisa Paredes), teetering on the brink of stylish middle age, is juggling the usual problems. Her marriage is foundering, she drinks a bit too much, her elderly mother is in failing health and her sister (Rossy De Palma) is married to a bum. Leo also has a secret, though not an especially dark one: She writes trashy romances under a pseudonym, and badly wants to do something serious Complica...