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...film is somewhat reminiscent of episodes of “Law and Order” in the way the camera films investigators walking around a city talking about crime. And indeed, Campanella directed several episodes of the show. Imitating the visual style of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar, Campanella frames some shots with dramatic red curtains and varies shots between warm and cold colors, but he does not use the effect consistently. Campanella shows the violent, bloody corpse in long takes set to emotional music in a way that Martin Scorcese had been doing since “Gangs...
...traditional U.S. dominance.) But if history is any guide, it's doubtful that the situation will lead to anything like a Latin version of the European Union (E.U.). The Latin American landscape is littered with the acronyms of failed attempts to realize Simón Bolívar's dream of regional unity, and CELAC may well turn out to be little more than Calderón's attempt to make Mexico regionally and globally relevant again alongside Brazil (which, not coincidentally, sends less than a fifth of its exports...
Star Quality Broken Embraces could be the title of nearly any Almodóvar film. His people are infirm creatures looking for a little hug that can be therapeutic or redemptive. The paraplegic cop played by Javier Bardem in Live Flesh doesn't shrug off sexual desire just because he's confined to a wheelchair. Almodóvar suffuses his new film with this notion of the crippled seeking help; nearly every plot point pivots on someone's infirmity. The message is clear: we are all invalids who want to walk, if the fates allow, into each other's arms...
...mood and tone here are less bustling than in earlier Almodóvars. This time his energy went into the dense plot scheme, with its duplication of characters and family dynamics. One thing hasn't changed: the director's skill at bringing out the star quality of his performers. Homar, a Spanish stage veteran, handsomely shoulders the weight of the film. As for Cruz, in her fourth Almodóvar film, she's never been more luminous, serious or sexy. Her Lena is woman enough to justify one man's need to possess or destroy her and another's desire...
...like Jack and Bobby Kennedy - are robbed of life but also of aging and decay. They are frozen at the apex of their beauty, power and promise. So lovers like Mateo, and movie lovers like the rest of us, have that perfect vision as a perpetual keepsake. Almodóvar knows it too: a dead love never dies...