Broken Embraces

(or Abrazos Rotos, if you prefer)

I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know much of anything about Pedro Almodovar.  I did see "Talk to Her" many years back, but I had no idea who the filmmaker was.  So going into "Broken Embraces," I didn't know what to expect, except that I knew I had a general dislike for Penelope Cruz.

Upon seeing the movie, I don't have much to say about it.  To sum it up, you have a filmmaker, blind, but we don't know exactly why he is blind; a woman and her club DJ son who look after this blind man; an attractive and perhaps promiscuous young blond; a wealthy man with a lot of power; and, lastly, his secretary and her family.  How all of these people are tied together just takes a short while to sort out.

The story, in itself, seems pretty absurd, at least from the movie's point of betrayal onward.  I don't know, maybe it's just a cultural thing, and there are differences in how people handle hard times which I can't really grasp or understand.  I guess I just had a hard time believing how some of the characters carried themselves towards the film's resolution.  It just seemed too easy.  That's as much as I can say without giving anything away.

I did, however, get ever slightly suckered in, and some of the things I should have seen coming, I didn't.  Regardless of anything else, the one thing I do know for certain is I ENJOYED THIS MOVIE QUITE A BIT.  I'm not necessarily saying it was a good or bad movie.  I don't think it's either, but I enjoyed it regardless, and it was a 5 bucks well spent.

The theater itself didn't hurt things at all.  The Living Room Theaters in downtown PDX has 1/2 off of regular (non-3D) movies on Mondays and Tuesdays. Each viewing room is cozy, and contains maybe 30 seats.  If you're lucky, you'll get the ottoman to go with your seats.  It mostly felt like being in first class on an airplane.  And they have a bar and restaurant in front of the theater.  You can hang out there, or order some hummus & pita or a panini and have it delivered to your seat.  That's convenient.  I didn't take advantage of this service, but perhaps I will in the future.   The people working seemed really nice as well.