After the wholesale disappointment of the critically mauled Kika, Pedro Almodóvar desperately needed to regain lost-ground as one of Europes premier filmmakers. Here he takes the brave step of abandoning his high voltage sex and comedy trademarks, opting instead for a detailed and dramatic account of a successful authoress coming to terms with desertion and solitude at the onset of middle age.
As a writer of best-selling romantic fiction under an assumed name, Leo (Parades) clings desperately to a dissolving marriage to an absent NATO official, finds herself the victim of the ultimate betrayal by her closest friend, and yet is granted no consideration or compassion from her squabbling mother (Lumpreave) and sister (De Palma). Alone but for her new best friend, the bottle, she can do nothing but dispense with the falsehoods and pretences that have come to govern her life, and return to her familys village, in the hope of rediscovering her true self.
Stripped bare of the staples we have come to expect from the Almodóvar camp save for a perfectly realised comic double act from Lumpreave and De Palma the film more than compensates by the power of Paredes performance. Toning down the multi-colour sets and garish mixnmatch costumes, Almodóvar lets rip with a story of great emotional intensity, while retaining his signature stunning visual style and a central performance quite unlike anything previously seen in his work. A potent and strikingly well-delivered combination, proving that Madrids finest is truly back on track.