Broken Embraces is 'noir'-ish love story and the fourth film Penelope 'Penny' Cruz has made with Pedro Almodovar. It's not her best performance ever (a little flat). It's not his best film ever (a little lacking).
But boy does the camera love her. There are so many shots in this where P 'P' C has her back to the camera and then all of a sudden she swishes her head around to face you and each time a tiny little tingle runs down your spine.
That's just how Pedro wants it. His frequent 'thing' over his career is to remind us of the power of cinema and like many of his pics, Broken Embraces deals heavily with the film world, with P 'P' C playing a wannabe actress beguiling all those around her. That she is so striking just reminds us why we love this stuff in the first place.
Broken Embraces, therefore, is a good example of a film that's not the best film either the director or star has ever made, yet is still well worth seeing as it's about 8 times intriguing than most other stuff. *
* it's actually 9 times more intriguing that The Ugly Truth.
