Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) (Broken Hugs) poster & wallpaper

Alejo Sauras, Blanca Portillo, Carlos Leal

A man writes, lives and loves in darkness. Fourteen years before, he was in a brutal car crash on the island of Lanzarote. In the accident, he not only lost his sight, he also lost Lena, the love of h...( read more  read more... )is life.

This man uses two names: Harry Caine, a playful pseudonym with which he signs his literary works, stories and scripts, and Mateo Blanco, his real name, with which he lives and signs the film he directs. After the accident, Mateo Blanco reduces himself to his pseudonym, Harry Caine. If he can’t direct films he can only survive with the idea that Mateo Blanco died on Lanzarote with his beloved Lena.

In the present day, Harry Caine lives thanks to the scripts he writes and to the help he gets from his faithful former production manager, Judit García, and from Diego, her son, his secretary, typist and guide.

Since he decided to live and tell stories, Harry is an active, attractive blind man who has developed all his other senses in order to enjoy life, on a basis of irony and self-induced amnesia. He has erased from his biography any trace of his first identity, Mateo Blanco. One night Diego has an accident and Harry takes care of him (his mother, Judit, is out of Madrid and they decide not to tell her anything so as not to alarm her). During the first nights of his convalescence, Diego asks him about the time when he answered to the name of Mateo Blanco, after a moment of astonishment Harry can’t refuse and he tells Diego what happened fourteen years before with the idea of entertaining him, just as a father tells his little child a story so that he’ll fall asleep.

The story of Mateo, Lena, Judit and Ernesto Martel is a story of “amour fou”, dominated by fatality, jealously, the abuse of power, treachery and a guilt complex. A moving and terrible story, the most expressive image of which is the photo of two lovers embracing, torn into a thousand pieces.

Flixster Users

70% liked it

10,329 ratings

Critics

81% liked it

62 critics

R, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar

Release Date: November 20, 2009

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Stats: 595 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (595)

  • McKittrick
    September 10, 2009
    McKittrick
    Oh sweet misery. Oh joy of joyless joy. Oh such profound disappointment. Immaculately executed but dramatically muted and actually (shock-horror!) a tad boring.
    I miss the camp and the melodrama... I miss Carmen Maura!
    Well, at least the hysterical cameos, from Chus Lampreave an...( read more)d Rossy de Palma, helped to ease the bitter-sweet broodings of my cine-nostalgia and stopped me pining for Almodovar's original muse for five minutes or so.
  • mvieaddict
    October 2, 2009
    mvieaddict
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    Wow, Abrazos Rotos, was an incredible movie. This is the way I like to watch my movies. Almodovar has always made interesting movies...( read more), some might have come over as soaps, but they were masterpieces. It's a fabulous movie that had several flash backs scenes about vengeance, grief, suffer and love. Sometimes the movie seems a little complicated, but everything will be clear at the end. Like other Almodovar's movies,you will experience jealousy,secrets, passion and death. Penelope Cruz acting was amazing..
  • g1pp4l
    September 27, 2009
    g1pp4l
    Almodóvar's typical shit, but this time trying to be serious. Doesn't work. Most of the actors do a fucking terrible job (except maybe Lluís Homar, but his character isn't good). No need to watch it.
  • InaHH
    August 23, 2009
    InaHH
    A weak film for Almodovar, but nevertheless still a good movie. The great weakness is the plot that lacks the many layers and facets of other Almodovar films. But: Acting, direction, overall execution are all immaculate, Penelope Cruz is mesmerizing. Now, I really want to see tha...( read more)t film within a film "Chicas y Maletas".
  • DragonEyeMorrison
    November 22, 2009
    DragonEyeMorrison
    I don't like Almodovar.
  • alessandro0100
    November 16, 2009
    alessandro0100
    Un'altra storia alla Almodovar riconoscibilissima per narrazione, inquadrature e colori. Lo stile è davvero un marchio di fabbrica. Purtroppo il rischio è quello di coltivare film che lasciano uno spiacevole sapore di già visto. Nonostante gli attori siano validi e la fotografia ...( read more)sia curatissima, la trama stavolta lascia ampi spazi alla critica feroce, tanti sono i momenti di banalità che accompagnano lo spettatore fino al pur decente finale. Ok, il lato psicologico dei personaggi è degno di nota e gioca sempre a favore del regista, ma qui come in parte anche in volver si tende ad arrivare all'inverosimile e talvolta anche al ridicolo. Un'esperienza deludente.
  • aryachan89
    November 15, 2009
    aryachan89
    Non mi è piaciuto particolarmente...
  • gdeceiver
    November 15, 2009
    gdeceiver
    There are beautiful scenes and Almodovar is a perfect director.
    Unfortunately the story itself isn't very profound, and the film is not as good as it could have been.
    Regia meravigiosa.
  • EddieGunner
    November 12, 2009
    EddieGunner
    great movie with nice story, good old Almodovar gave us one more great movie with great PEnelope
  • flitzan
    November 12, 2009
    flitzan
    Classikos Almodovar. Polu kalh skhnothesia, alla ws istoria kapws vareth, argh kai anamenomenh...

    H Penelope polu kalh ws sunithws.

View All Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) (Broken Hugs) Reviews

Critic Reviews

November 20, 2009
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Mr. Almodóvar's love of movies informs every frame of this beautiful film. When Harry's fingers explore the dotted landscape of a Braille script, they bespeak the writer's unbroken embrace of language... full review

November 19, 2009
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Leaves the viewer in a contradictory state, a mixture of devastation and euphoria, amusement and dismay that deserves its own clinical designation. full review

November 19, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

Almodóvar lost his nerve when he acquired expensive technique. Inspired by Buñuel and De Palma, he used to match them. Now, his once underground satires are just expensive tearjerkers. full review

November 19, 2009
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Cruz doesn't coast on her beauty in Broken Embraces, and she has the kind of role that can be difficult to flesh out. full review

November 16, 2009
Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Seems a touch too long, too airless, and too content with its own contrivances to stir the heart. full review

September 21, 2009
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

Old-hat tropes under a superficially stunning veneer. full review

August 29, 2009
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times

Can Pedro Almodóvar make a bad film? The answer seems to be no, even when he might be accused of trying. Broken Embraces has a mazy plot in which a poor director would lose himself fast. full review

View more Los Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces) (Broken Hugs) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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