Review by Fritz Esker
*** stars (out of four)

Spanish writer/director Pedro Almodovar’s Broken Embraces is not an easy film to categorize. At times, it is a mystery, a romance, and an examination of the filmmaking process. It flashes back and forward in time, focusing primarily on a blind writer (Lluis Homar), who once (when he had his sight) was an acclaimed filmmaker. In the flashbacks, he is shooting a film with a lead actress (Penelope Cruz) who is the mistress of a possessive millionaire. Naturally, the two begin a clandestine love affair. Penelope Cruz once again proves that she is a far, far better actress when she is speaking in her native Spanish. She’s so good in the film that the movie bogs down a bit in its final act when she disappears for a long stretch. The plot is mostly engaging—unraveling as a sort of mystery (what happened to make the writer blind, why does a mysterious stranger seem desperate to work on a film with him) and it manages to remain coherent even as it jumps back and forth in time. For viewers willing to read subtitles, it’s a worthwhile film.