Movie · 1991 · Drama, Comedy, Crime · 1h 54m · R · Spanish
Curator score: 1.7/10 (19K ratings)
A mother, a daughter, a lover. Relationships can be murder.
Overview
After being estranged for 15 years, flamboyant actress Becky del Paramo re-enters her daughter Rebeca's life when she comes to perform a concert. Rebeca, she finds, is now married to one of Becky's ex-lovers, Manuel. The mother and daughter begin making up for lost time, when suddenly, a murder occurs...
Ratings
Curator score: 1.7/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
Metacritic: 51
TMDB: 7.0/10
Director
Pedro Almodóvar
Production
El Deseo, CiBy 2000, TF1 Films Production
Cast
Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes, Miguel Bosé, Anna Lizaran, Mayrata O'Wisiedo, Cristina Marcos, Féodor Atkine, Pedro Díez del Corral, Bibiana Fernández, Nacho Martínez, Miriam Díaz-Aroca, Lupe Barrado, Juan José Otegui, Paula Soldevila, Javier Bardem, Gabriel Garbisu, Eva Siva, Montse G. Romeu, Lina Mira, Abraham García
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, melodramatic crime-comedy that’s at its best when it leans into emotional chaos, performance, and campy reversals. The film’s bold visual style and mother-daughter tension are memorable, but the murder-mystery mechanics and tonal shifts can feel uneven.
Best for
fans of flamboyant melodrama and camp
viewers who like crime stories with soap-opera energy
people interested in queer-coded, theatrical filmmaking
audiences drawn to mother-daughter psychodrama
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted mystery
you dislike heightened, self-conscious melodrama
you prefer restrained realism
you’re not in the mood for tonal whiplash
Overview
High Heels is pure Almodóvar: glossy, emotional, mischievous, and always a little more interested in desire than in logic. The film turns a murder setup into a stage for performance, identity, and family wounds, with pop-star glamour and soap-opera excess driving nearly every scene.
Worth noting
Its strongest material comes from the fraught reunion between mother and daughter, where affection, resentment, and longing keep colliding. The movie also has a playful relationship with gender and performance, using drag, celebrity, and theatricality to blur private life and public persona.
Bottom line
As a crime story, it’s looser than it is satisfying, and some viewers may find the shifting tone more charming than coherent. But if you’re open to a film that values emotional spectacle over neat plotting, it’s a vivid, oddly tender ride.
Top Letterboxd reviews
cassandra (3.5★) · 2193 likes
Normalize your baby daddy being a part time drag queen who impersonates your famous mother
Maria (3.5★) · 1685 likes
"Rebecca, you must find another way of solving your problems with men."
Shane McAvoy · 1137 likes
More murder mysteries should sneak in a dance sequence in a women’s prison.
Alexander Luzgarev (3.5★) · 907 likes
You don't kill a daughter's husband two days before your theatrical debut.
CinemaVoid 🏴☠️ (4★) · 855 likes
A glamorous, twisted noir that blurs the line between crime and cabaret. Now I’m just curious how many of my detectives moonlight as drag queens?