Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar ( High Heels, The Flower of My Secret, All About My Mother ) gets rather serious in this camp-free melodrama about a blind writer (Lluís Homar) nursing some long-hidden heartbreak. Much of the film’s run time is spent on flashbacks detailing our protagonist’s affair with a wannabe actress (Penélope Cruz) on the set of a movie 15 year ago. Various other characters and storylines weave their way through this ensemble narrative. The scattered plot takes some time to come together, but like all Almodóvar films, it coalesces quite neatly.
I Like To Watch
Penélope Cruz stars in this Like Water For Chocolate style romantic comedy. Cruz is a Brazilian chef who suffers from extreme motion sickness (don’t ask). When her dissatisfied hubby cheats on her, the heartbroken Cruz heads to San Francisco to visit an old tranvestite pal of hers (shades of Pedro Almodóvar). There her spicy (and somehow magical) cooking enthralls everyone she comes in contact with.
