Image via http://www.spanishfilmfestival.com
I had a few micro naps in this well-meaning but ham-fisted Spanish thriller, screening as part of the Spanish Film Festival. The synopsis likened it to V for Vendetta, which was what convinced me to choose it. And yes it had political activists wearing masks to hide their identity but it felt like a film school version; with drama and action substituted with endless exposition, a convoluted plot and a score straight from a bad TV-movie. Continue reading
Oh Pedro, what has happened to the drama in your melodrama? This latest from Pedro Almodóvar is a dynamically flat story of Julieta, a woman whose daughter, Antía, has become estranged from her. Through flashback, we see Julieta meeting and falling in love with Xoan, a fisherman. We see their daughter growing up, the artist friend who is Xoan’s occasional lover, their disapproving housekeeper and Julieta’s father and ill mother. And we see the trauma that sets in train Antía’s rejection of her past. 