I have a patchy relationship with Pedro Almodóvar. From loving his early films, I lost my way with some of his more recent dry melodramas, like Julieta. He won me back though with Pain and Glory and so I was tentatively excited to see his latest.

 The trailer makes it clear that the content is going to be heavy. Martha (Tilda Swinton) and Ingrid (Julianne Moore) are good friends who have not seen each other in quite awhile. When Ingrid finds out that Martha has cancer, she is very quick to visit her and provide unconditional support. When Martha makes it clear that she wants to stop treatment and asks Ingrid for her support in choosing when she dies, Ingrid’s own fear of death and dying is challenged.

There is a lot to admire about this film, not least the three gorgeous apartments that Ingrid and Martha variously live in. There is barely a moment that is not filled with stark beauty or poetry or intensity. Like with Julieta though, Almodóvar intermittently underlines scenes with the motifs of melodrama – an orchestral soundtrack, actors playing multiple characters, and people speaking in absolutes as if they are reading from a novel.

The aspect that I struggled the most with was Martha and Swinton‘s characterisation of her. Contrasted against Julianne Moore’s vulnerable and believable performance as Ingrid, Swinton sounds like she is reading lines of dialogue. She is wooden and emotionless and I wonder if she is supposed to be the monster or narcissist or, at best, just very self absorbed person that she comes across as.

She blames her rift with her daughter Michelle on her daughter, explaining that it began when she was a few years old, seeming unable to take proper account for her part in their estrangement. Even Martha roping in Ingrid, her dear friend who has a fear of death, to provide comfort and companionship in her last weeks seems outrageously self absorbed.

There are some beautiful scenes, some nice little nuggets of dialogue but I found myself wishing that Martha would get on with it. I felt no emotion and I’m not sure if this was intentional by the director or just a difference of understanding between us as to what makes an absorbing story.

I don’t know if it is me that has changed or Almodóvar. I should revisit some of my favourites of his like All About my Mother and Talk to Her, to see if they still resonate. Maybe it’s me.