The feeling that Almodovar dried up his creativity, drained his energy to shoot emotional characters, is getting confirmed. Now you can barely hope for an ok movie from the child of la movida.
Most of the movie is pretty stale. We've already seen these characters before, only stronger and more intense, not diluted in some soapish summer novel that middle-aged women read in the shade. It is funny to read hypocritical reviewers here acknowledging the flatness of the storyline but filmed with style. Sorry pedantic nostalgics of Almodovar but if you are honest - or know some arithmetics - flat plus style gives a big blown up flat movie.
The male character was very weak. Maybe it was a choice to push him even more in the background of this story about women struggling to live their own lives, but I found it really distracting. It is not clear if she is interested in him indirectly, because he may help her with her family history, if she used him to get pregnant or if she fell for him at some point.
Penelope Cruz happens to be charming, touching but because of the weak characterization she ends up lost, passive most of the time.
And seriously these boring bourgeois characters really do not help making this story interesting: they all live in spacious cozy apartments with maids to help, they are doing their exclusive, high-brow dream job (photographer, anthropologist, thespian), including the young mother is never on the verge of selling her body to turn her back on such substantial material advantages.
Quite frankly, Almodovar has just lost it. His touch of magical movie-making, and his touch with real people.
Most of the movie is pretty stale. We've already seen these characters before, only stronger and more intense, not diluted in some soapish summer novel that middle-aged women read in the shade. It is funny to read hypocritical reviewers here acknowledging the flatness of the storyline but filmed with style. Sorry pedantic nostalgics of Almodovar but if you are honest - or know some arithmetics - flat plus style gives a big blown up flat movie.
The male character was very weak. Maybe it was a choice to push him even more in the background of this story about women struggling to live their own lives, but I found it really distracting. It is not clear if she is interested in him indirectly, because he may help her with her family history, if she used him to get pregnant or if she fell for him at some point.
Penelope Cruz happens to be charming, touching but because of the weak characterization she ends up lost, passive most of the time.
And seriously these boring bourgeois characters really do not help making this story interesting: they all live in spacious cozy apartments with maids to help, they are doing their exclusive, high-brow dream job (photographer, anthropologist, thespian), including the young mother is never on the verge of selling her body to turn her back on such substantial material advantages.
Quite frankly, Almodovar has just lost it. His touch of magical movie-making, and his touch with real people.