“Broken Embraces” More Interesting and Terrific As It Goes Along
Feb 4th
More Interesting and Terrific As It Goes Along
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
BROKEN EMBRACES stars Penelope Cruz in her fourth film with writer-director Pedro Almodovar, and it is a very good romantic mystery that will keep you interested and trying to guess its secrets up until the very end.
The time shifts between 2008 and the early 1990s in Madrid, and the story involves the relationships of a beautiful sexy woman, an old wealthy businessman, and a young handsome filmmaker and how their lives became intertwined.
We first meet Harry Caine, who is blind and who writes movie scripts.
A young woman he has just met is reading the newspaper to him in his apartment, and she reads the notice of the recent death of Ernesto Martel, a famous businessman who had spent some time in prison.
After she has finished reading to him, Harry asks her to describe herself for him, uses his hands to confirm her description, and the next thing we know, they are making love on the couch.
When the young woman is in the bathroom, an older woman named Judit Garcia lets herself into the apartment, and after the young woman has left, Judit confronts Harry about his indiscretion.
Harry says, “All that’s left is for me to enjoy life.”
Judit has a son named Diego, who also helps Harry, even to the point of their trying to write a movie script together. Then when Judit goes away from Madrid for two weeks and Diego has an accident that sends him to the hospital, Harry starts telling Diego the story of the love of his life, Lena, which we see as the details unfold.
It was back in 1994 when Harry met Lena and Ernesto. Harry’s name was Mateo Blanco back then, and he was a movie director.
But most important, he wasn’t blind.
Lena was Ernesto’s mistress, she wanted to act in the movies, and she showed up to audition for Mateo’s next movie, GIRLS AND SUITCASES.
However, Ernesto was extremely jealous of Lena, and so he sent his awkward son to follow Lena wherever she went and film her under the pretext of making a documentary.
You can guess what happened next. Lena got the part, she and Mateo fell in love during the making of the movie, but then what happened?
BROKEN EMBRACES gets more interesting and terrific as it goes along.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
Broken Embraces – Movie Trailer
Feb 1st
A follow-up to Spanish enfant terrible Pedro Almodóvar’s 2006 arthouse sensation Volver, Los Abrazos Rotos finds the filmmaker re-teaming with actress Penelope Cruz and working on a canvas much broader than those of his previous outings, in terms of genres covered, narrative scope, and duration. Lluís Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when the news arrives that the producer of one of Harry’s old movies (“Girls and Suitcases”), a corrupt stockbroker named Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gómez), has died. For mysterious reasons, this makes Harry’s ex-production manager Judit (Blanca Portillo) nervous; then Ernesto’s son, Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), turns up and asks Harry to help him write a vindictive script to get back at his vile father. The film subsequently flashes back to the early ’90s, when Martel became involved with his secretary, Lena (Cruz), but Mateo also began to develop feelings for her, and auditioned her for “Girls and Suitcases.” In response to Mateo’s interest in Lena (and her burgeoning interest in him), the jealous Martel commissioned Ray to make a documentary about the making of “Girls and Suitcases” as an excuse to spy on the director and star. This enabled him to watch Mateo spiriting off with Lena right under his nose, and set the stage for the wily producer’s elaborate revenge against Mateo. As this synopsis suggests, Almodóvar uses a tricky structure laden with flashbacks to both comment on and explain the events of the present; he also interweaves a noirish sensibility throughout the picture that marks something of a first for this director.
“Extraordinary Measures” Feel-Good Weepie
Jan 28th
Feel-Good Weepie
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES starts off by stating that it is “Inspired by true events,” and you wonder how that knowledge is supposed to make us feel about the movie.
Is that simply a label of truth in advertising, or have we become so bombarded by so-called “reality television” shows that filmmakers believe that audiences will be more respectful than if the source material were just pure fiction?
At any rate, Brandon Fraser plays John Crowley, who really does exist, and this movie is based on the story of him, his family, and their struggles to achieve something remarkable, whereas Harrison Ford gets second billing in the credits, and his character, Dr. Robert Stonehill, is a composite of the doctors who helped Crowley achieve what he did.
You may even be surprised at how Ford pulls out his acting chops and shows some true emotions.
The movie begins with the birthday party of eight-year-old Megan Crowley, the daughter of John and his wife, Aileen, played by Keri Russell.
Megan is confined to a wheelchair, because she has Pompe disease, a form of muscular dystrophy, which tends to be fatal in children by the time they are nine or ten years old.
Megan gets a cold the next day, but has to go to the hospital, where the doctor tells her parents that she is not responding well.
So, Crowley does some research, and he learns about a scientist in Lincoln, Nebraska, who is working on a cure for Pompe disease. Dr. Stonehill has unusual work habits, and Crowley eventually travels to Nebraska to meet with Stonehill personally.
When Crowley finally manages to find him and tell him about his daughter, Dr. Stonehill says gruffly, “I do research. I don’t see patients.”
Crowley also has a six-year-old son who suffers from the disease, too, and when Stonehill says that half of his grants don’t even get approved, Crowley makes the rash promise that he will raise the necessary $500,000 for Stonehill to complete his laboratory work.
Then the rest of the movie is about how the two men set up their own bio-tech company and their race against time to save Crowley’s children, overcome their difficulties working with each other, and raise the money to become successful.
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES is a feel-good weepie, but it is a good feel-good weepie.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
