This 2002 work by Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodovar concerns two men, journalist Marco (Grandinetti, who looks little like a grubby little brother of Patrick Stewart), and nurse Benigno (Camara). Their paths cross briefly by chance at a ballet performance, then more critically at the private clinic where Benigno works. It turns out Benigno is caring for a young ballerina named Alicia (Watling) whom he has worshipped from afar and who has been in a coma for four years after a car accident. Marco's new girlfriend Lydia (Flores) is a bullfighter he met when both were on the rebound and who has been gored by a bull. Secrets and obssessions are gradually unveiled; the film is sensuous but slow, and its shocks appear mostly indirectly yet make the viewer think and shift uneasily. Who is crazy? Who is holding things together? And are miracles possible? Geraldine Chaplin has a meaty supporting role as Alicia's ballet teacher. Almodovar is clearly an acquired taste; this film is less frenetic than many of his 90s movies, but no less unsettling.
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The review of this Movie prepared by David Loftus
