Movie · 2009 · Drama, Romance, Thriller · 2h 7m · R · Spanish
Curator score: 7.1/10 (44.7K ratings)
Passion, obsession, wealth, jealousy, family, guilt, and creativity.
Overview
Harry Caine, a blind writer, reaches this moment in time when he has to heal his wounds from 14 years back. He was then still known by his real name, Mateo Blanco, and directing his last movie.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.1/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Metacritic: 76
TMDB: 7.2/10
Director
Pedro Almodóvar
Production
El Deseo
Cast
Penélope Cruz, Lluís Homar, Blanca Portillo, José Luis Gómez, Rubén Ochandiano, Tamar Novas, Ángela Molina, Chus Lampreave, Kiti Mánver, Lola Dueñas, Mariola Fuentes, Carmen Machi, Kira Miró, Rossy de Palma, Alejo Sauras, Carlos Sampedro, Ramón Pons, Coté Soler, Marta Aledo, Carlos Leal
Curator Review
Verdict
A richly layered Almodóvar melodrama that blends noir, romance, and meta-cinema into a stylish story about memory, obsession, and the cost of making art. It’s especially rewarding if you like twisty narratives, lush visual design, and emotionally charged performances.
Best for
fans of melodrama with a noir edge
viewers who enjoy films about filmmaking and memory
audiences drawn to lush color, design, and strong visual style
people who like romantic thrillers with emotional complexity
Skip if
you want a fast, straightforward thriller
you dislike self-reflexive or highly stylized storytelling
you prefer restrained realism over heightened emotion
you are not in the mood for a plot built around flashbacks and revelations
Overview
Broken Embraces is one of Pedro Almodóvar’s most polished late-period films, a glossy, mournful puzzle box about love, jealousy, authorship, and the stories we tell to survive our past. It moves between present-day aftermath and the fevered memory of a doomed production, using that structure to turn romance into something closer to a noir investigation of regret.
Worth noting
The film’s pleasures are as much formal as emotional: saturated color, elegant compositions, and a confident sense of visual storytelling that makes every room, costume, and prop feel loaded with meaning. Penélope Cruz is magnetic, and the movie’s shifting perspectives give the material a seductive, almost literary richness.
Bottom line
It is not Almodóvar at his lightest or most playful, but it may be one of his most mature. If you respond to cinema that treats melodrama seriously and uses genre as a way to probe memory and desire, this is a strong watch.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Aaron Michael (3★) · 600 likes
Pedro Almodovar: *makes another melodrama*
Me: talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, totally not even been done before, unafraid to reference or not reference, put it in a blender, shit on it, vomit on it, eat it, give birth to it
𝕎𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕞 𝕧𝕒𝕟 𝕕𝕖𝕣 ℤ𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕟 (4★) · 443 likes
I would very much like to see an erotic vampire romance by Almodovar now, please!
matthias (4★) · 202 likes
i'll have that gazpacho
DNA cinephile🏳️🌈 (5★) · 150 likes
Broken Embraces. Los abrazos rotos. 2009. Directed by Pedro Almodovar.
This is Pedro Almodovar at his best with regard to story telling and mixing genres but he relies on the one genre (NOIR) that mixes well with romance, drama, and thriller genres. Truffaut and De Palma are influences I think of when I watch Broken Embraces. In fact, this is his Hitchcockian genre hopper with a stellar script, amazing sets, brilliant set furniture, a noir score by Alberto Iglesias, awe inspiring… more Broken Embraces. Los abrazos rotos. 2009. Directed by Pedro Almodovar.
This is Pedro Almodovar at his best with regard to story telling and mixing genres but he relies on the one genre (NOIR) that mixes well with romance, drama, and thriller genres. Truffaut and De Palma are influences I think of when I watch Broken Embraces. In fact, this is his Hitchcockian genre hopper with a stellar script, amazing sets, brilliant set furniture, a noir score by Alberto Iglesias, awe inspiring… more