User Reviews

Sweet, and very well acted. This is much less wild and outrageous than earlier Almodovar, but compensates by having more real emotion. Still, this has two of his usual key elements -- dramatic use of intense color, and a melodramatic, almost soapy, story. It's clear he loves melodrama at the same time he gently pokes fun at it.

But in 'Flower of My Secret' the soap has more underpinnings in humanity, with subtler behavior and humor. Technically he gets even better with this film. It's beautiful, shot in a more subdued style than his earlier work. Not a great movie, but a good, entertaining, human one that paves the way to his later fully 'real' and moving masterpieces like 'Talk to Her'. Lovely performances.

There seem to be two distinct groups among Almodovar fans. Those who prefer his earlier, wilder, more genre busting work, and those who prefer his more recent, subtler films. I'm in the second group, but can completely understand those who feel differently. And where you fall on that scale is likely to have a big impact on your reaction to this film.

The film famed for pivoting Almodovar's move away from formless farce to the rich delights of melodrama, which would produce his two masterpieces, LIVE FLESH and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER. SECRET isn't quite up to those films (the mix of comedy and drama isn't quite digested) but is a wonderful start, with its amazing heroine, whose delusions and needs are revealed but never resolved; its typically eccentric supporting cast; its ruminations on the artist and her art - there are writers, editors, dancers, filmmakers all in the film - and secrets, both private and public; its silly men; its use of interiors and decor; Almodovar's still cherishable, unparalleled use of colour, allied with a new found sense of composition (the later films would reveal his increasing mastery of the camera); some extraordinary shots, especially the paper shower during the students' demonstration.

In a very short period of time I've seen several of Pedro Almodóvar's movies and I've become a fan of his work. I love his style of mixing drama with (sometimes absurd) humor and music. I like the fact that he always knows to make you feel as if you know the characters personally after seeing the movie... Having said this, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed by "La flor de mi secreto".

The characters aren't as well developed as I'm used to see in his movies and it's sometimes very hard to care for his main character: Leo Macías (Marisa Paredes). As Amanda Gris (her pseudonym), she is a writer of very successful sentimental novels who deal about love, sex and happy endings. But her personal life is a complete mess. She doesn't want to write this kind of novels anymore and she gets an assignment from a magazine to write a review on the work of... Amanda Gris. Her relationship with her man isn't any good. He works for the Nato, is more abroad than at home and when he's at home he wants to leave as soon as possible. She drinks too much, her mother is a cause of many concerns... She wants to change her whole life, but it isn't as easy as she hoped it would be.

Even though the story isn't bad or boring, it doesn't really succeed to be as captivating as I would like it to be. The positive thing about this movie is that you already can see Almodovár's talent for the use of humor and music, great camera work, interesting story telling... sipping through. Things that became more obvious in his later work. This movie may not be the best example of his work, but it is worth a watch. I give it a 6/10.

The title of Almodovar's later film, All About My Mother, was a nod of respect in the direction of the 1950 Hollywood film, All About Eve, which contains Bette Davis's famous line - "Fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night". This quote could well appear at the start of most of the Spanish director's films, certainly Flower. Here, the rider on his emotional rollercoaster is Leocadia (Leo) Macias (Marisa Paredes), whose marriage and life are in crisis. She is not as young as she was, and her handsome husband Paco (Imanol Arias) has lost interest and is about to leave her. The "secret" of the title is that Leo writes romantic novels under an assumed name, but hers is not the only secret revealed in the movie.

Spoiled and self-centred Leo is not the most likeable of women; her sister Rosa (the wonderful Rossy de Palma) who looks after their aged mother probably deserves more of our sympathy. But the nicest people don't necessarily provide the most interesting stories; and Almodovar isn't trying to enlist our pity, but our understanding. If, according to the oft-quoted screenplay dictum, character is defined by action, then what he shows us is a courageous character who overcomes her self-pity, and takes up life and love again. Leo comes to terms with her loss, in much the same way as the mother in film's opening scene finally accepts that her son is dead. But that episode turns out to be a repeatable training session for doctors, so perhaps Almodovar is warning Leo that loss of love can take place more than once, or possibly he is suggesting to the audience that they regard Leo's story as a training session for life.

This unashamed melodrama is conveyed via magical acting, great camerawork, and above all intense colours. There are a few specifically Spanish touches, including a sequence where Leo and her mother return to their idyllic, picturesque family village, and a flamenco dance (to Miles Davis music). As usual, there are also reminders of the downsides of modern urban life, though some of the references to drugs and unemployment are a little forced and superfluous. All in all, this is a great pictorial story teller telling perhaps not his greatest tale, but certainly one worth listening to and seeing.

"The Flower of My Secret" is an unusual film by the controversial Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar. So often, the man seems to go out of his way to shock and offend the viewer. Yet, oddly, this is an amazingly 'normal' film and it lacks the shock value of films such as "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown", "The Skin I live In" or "All About My Father". This is NOT a complaint--and it does make the film more palatable for the average viewer. However, it's also a film that only mildly piqued my interest and might disappoint his die- hard fans.

Leo (Marisa Paredes) is a middle-aged woman with a secret--what exactly that is you'll need to find out for yourself. She also has a marriage that is on the rocks. Her husband is a UN peace-keeper and seems to use this as an excuse not to return home. They are very distant--and some of this might be due to Leo's very volatile personality and drinking. Where exactly all this goes, I'd rather you just watch the film as I don't want to divulge exactly what happens.

While the film is well-crafted and acted, it's also woefully incomplete. The ending, I can almost guarantee, will leave you a bit unsatisfied as it seems a bit vague. But the film is an interesting character study and it's worth seeing just for that. Plus, I could see a group of friends or a couple watching this one and then talking about the many issues it raises.

Pedro Almodovar is easily one of the most interesting filmmakers in the world today and most of his films are in a strange way tongue in cheek, despite the premise of the story! But in this film its a more serious Almodovar story and while never boring, I'm not sure it succeeds on the level it wants. Story is about a woman who is a very famous writer but writes under a pseudonym. She hates her own work and is hired by a magazine to do a story on herself (They don't know she is the same person). Marisa Paredes is Leo and as she enters middle age she seems to be going through a mid-life crisis. She drinks to much and her marriage is falling apart. Her husband Paco (Imanol Aris) is in the military and always gone. Its evident he does not miss her but Leo looks forward to when he comes home. Definitely a more somber and straight laced story by one of the most irreverent directors in ages. Paredes is always captivating and she seems at ease playing women with deep rooted problems. Film follows her as Leo must learn all over again how to enjoy life and most important, to like herself! Slow moving film as some genuine moments from Paredes but its not one of Almodovars better efforts.

"The Flower of My Secret" is from 1995, written and directed by Pedro Almodovar. It's not his best, but even a weaker Almodovar is better than just about anything out there.

The story begins strangely, with two youngish men, doctors, attempting to convince a woman to let her brain-dead son's organs be harvested. It turns out that it's some sort of training. Leo (Marisa Paredes) is waiting outside to ask her friend for help. She can't get her boots off and needs help.

Leo's husband is in the military. She is a writer, a famous one, though not under her own name. She uses the name Amanda Gris. She goes to see the editor of a newspaper and asks to do a literature section for him. After he reads her unpublished novel, he hires her to write a story about Amanda Gris. Later on, he tells her that a film is being made and the story is similar to the novel.

When Leo's husband Paco (Imanol Aris) shows up, it's obvious that though she has a great evening planned, he does not share her ardor. And he actually isn't on leave; he just has to leave, and he does. Leo is completely devastated.

This is a more serious Almodovar and, though Leo does have a nutty mother, a maid who dances, and the maid's son (a dancer/filmmaker), this isn't a film studded with Almodovar's usual assortment of eccentric characters and situations.

Almodovar ties up the theme with the training we see in the beginning -- acceptance and moving on. It's a lovely story of a woman unable to free herself from her life, in the same way she can't get those boots, but who ultimately breaks loose.

Though it doesn't quite succeed, "The Flower of My Secret" is worth seeing.

Flor is one of Pedro's understated best. The incomparable Marisa Paredes gives this film its ultimate power. Her extraordinary face details every nuance of the loss of her marriage--"abandonment," as Sr. Almodovar labels it. The rich flamenco scenes reframe the passion and pain Marisa's character moves through during the film. And as nearly always, Sr. A. pays homage here to other works that have informed his vision--a barrage of brilliant and troubled women writers (Djuna Barnes, Dorothy Parker, Carson McCullers, et al.), and "Casablanca" and "Rich and Famous," for instance. I thank God for Pedro. Without him, life would be as the lyrics of the Bola de Nieve song in this film--"no me dejes vivir."

An intense drama about love , jealous and betrayal. It deals with Leocadia, Marisa Paredes , a mature writer of romantic fiction who hits crisis point when she is rejected by her husband , Imanol Arias , and is then trapped by her reputation when she attempts to expand her literary horizons. Along the way she is supported by Angel : Juan Echanove , editor of the Newspaper El País. Later on, Leo returns to her native village, a source of solace.

This is an intimate portrait of pain and regeneration that strikes the heart without tricks. Here Pedro Almodovar focuses on a single character , the challenge of dealing closely an individual role has reconnected him with the emocional realities of an everyday damaged life. Although there are various secondaries incidents as the constant bickering between the mother : Chus Lampreave and Leo's sister Rossy De Palma, both of whom Almodovar's regulars, as well as a trip home to her native La Mancha, birth's location Almodovar himself. Here Pedro observes the commitment that permeates family relationships detailed with great honesty , perceptiveness and the habitual incisive humor, being freely based on a short novel written by Dorothy Parker. Main star Marisa Paredes gives a nice acting as the upsettling writer suffering loneliness , irritation , professional frustation and deceiving. Being well accompanied by ordinary actors of the Almodovar Factory displaying top-notch interpretations, such as Rossy De Palma , Chus Lampreave, Kiti Manver along with others as Juan Echanove , Imanol Arias , Jordi Molla, Nancho Novo, Carmen Elías, Gloria Muñoz, Juan Jose Otegui .Adding spectacular Flamenco dances by Joaquín Cortes and , of course , wonderful songs by Chavela Vargas .

Furthermore, colorful and glamorous cinematography by Alfonso Beato and Alfredo Mayo. Along with adequate and sensitive musical score by Alberto Iglesias. The picture was well made by Pedro Almodovar in his peculiar style, directing a especial melodrama, including his personal touches. Almodovar directs throughout with splendid zip and he often portrays strong female characters and getting a long career achieving some international awards. His first film Pepi, Luci, Boom 1980 was made in 16mm and had certain success. In 1987 Pedro and his brother Agustin established his own production company El Deseo S. A., making various and very popular fims all around the world. Oscar-winning Almodovar made a lot of successes such as Labyrinth of Passions, Law of Desire, Matador, Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown, Bad Education, All about my Mother, Talk to her, Broken embraces, The Skin I live, I'm so excited and nowadays he goes on giving big hits on the internatinal screens. The Flower of my Secret rating 6.5/10. Decent melodrama, essential and fundamental seeing for Pedro Almodovar aficionados. Worthwhile watching.

"The Flower of My Secret" follows a middle-aged married woman and somewhat neurotic novelist, Leo (Paredes), on the verge of divorce from the handwriting on the wall to the separation to the final realization and adjustments required to get her life back on track. There's little plot to be found in this linear dramady which sees Leo bumping into the people in her life for brief tete-a-tetes and bouncing off her emotional walls as she tries to cope with the inevitable. Not Almodovar's best work, this busy, mildly humorous, dialogue-intensive contempo Spanish flick received mild approval from critical corners and the public alike. Short on story but very well composed, "The Flower of My Secret" will play best with women, especially Spanish speakers or foreign film buffs. (B)

Only Pedro Almodovar can do a melodrama that crosses genres like this film. In one sense, this is a film that you would expect to see on Lifetime.

Marisa Paredes (All About My Mother, Life is Beautiful) is nothing less than outstanding a a writer that is going through a crisis with a husband (Imanol Arias) that does not love her anymore. There is, of course, a crisis with her mother (Chus Lampreave - Volver) at the same time. Then, she finds out that it is her best friend that is having an affair with her husband, and there are profession problems at the same time. Sounds just like a Lifetime movie, doesn't it? But, Almodovar manages to give us a great story with his twists. Laughs are generous as comedic situations occur throughout. It's like wanting to laugh at something at a funeral. It happens, and we just have to deal with it.

Juan Echanove (who supposedly gave a great performance in Alatriste, the film that I have been waiting for release theatrically, or on DVD) is superb as Ángel, the newspaper editor who fulfills a dream to write romance novels. and who is in love with Leo (Parades).

It is just another great film from Almodovar that defies a description that would ever do it justice. Only experiencing his films can ever be pleasure.

A novelist who writes highly popular, yet vapid and generic romantic fiction under a pseudonym, finds herself dissatisfied with her work. With her marriage falling apart, she turns away from romance and pens a bleak realist novel, one which her publishers have no interest in. To complicate matters further, she finds herself hired as a newspaper literary critic who is unknowingly tasked by her editor with reviewing her own work.

The Flower of My Secret was a film in a new direction from Spanish director Pedro Almódovar. He had hitherto been associated with colourful comedies such as the excellent and stylish Kika (1993), but with this film he definitely moved into a more mature and toned down direction. He had made films about women on the edge before of course but this time he was treating the material in a more measured and serious manner. It was an approach that reminded me a little of Woody Allen's move into more drama-based material after years of full-on comedy, in fact this film shares some similar ideas to Allen's Stardust Memories (1980), with its story about a writer who wants to make serious art but is held back by their audience's desire for more of the light-hearted stuff that made them popular in the first place. It could be argued that Almódovar, like Allen, was speaking for himself through his central character in this movie. Whatever the case, this could best be described as a melodrama with the camp elements marginalised. There is still some more typical comedy, however, with all of the scenes involving the writer's mother and sister providing plenty of humour. Marisa Paredes, who is a reliable staple of the Spanish movie scene, is excellent in this lead role. It's a character with a fair bit of depth and one who goes through considerable emotion, and Paredes is very good as the central dramatic core of the movie. The film overall is a strong bit of work from Almódovar and is an early indicator of future serious dramas which he would direct which would to go on to be among the most popular in his career. As it is, this is another fine, less well-known film from the Spanish auteur.

Pedro Almodóvar can't deal with the middle-ground. He likes to speak only in the high or the low, drenching his films in vibrant, Sirkian style that has to decide whether it's dressing an emotionally tumultuous drama or a light-speeded comedy. His career, beginning in the 1980s, has been long but equipped with as many misses as hits. Almodóvar's best make for startling unison between style and substance, deliberately artificial atmosphere turning more flaming as the goings get rough; his worst still look great, but they sometimes ramble, never going anywhere and never giving the style a place to grab onto. The red trench coats, red lipstick, and red pumps of Almodóvar's distinctly feminine characters are buried in catty conversations, Joan Collins schlock tears, leaving more of an image than an impression.

"The Flower of My Secret" is a quintessential example of an Almodóvar miss, absorbing in its aesthetic but distant in its ability to capture the imagination. Heavyweights like "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown" and "Broken Embraces" rip our throats out with their passion towards screwball zeal/Technicolor noir cynicism. But lightweights, "The Flower of My Secret" being a prime example, don't allow us to think about anything besides how scrumptious everything looks. There is nothing wrong with an obsession toward visual materialization, but one can only stare at a painting before they want to move on to something that knocks them off their jaded feet.

Marisa Paredes portrays Leo Marcías, a bestselling romance novelist who writes under the pseudonym Amanda Gris. Leo, though, doesn't take pride in her work like Danielle Steel or Nora Roberts. She hates it, desperate to be taken seriously but unable to publish anything meaningful thanks to a paralyzing authorial contract. It's becoming impossible to write such fantastical material, considering her husband (Imanol Arias) has no interest in solving marital problems and her closest friends seem ready to betray her at any waking moment. Finding no other way to fix the cracks that rough up her life, she decides to take a job at local newspaper El Pais as a literature critic. Well aware that she will have to eventually attack her own book, Leo finds unsettling excitement in the idea of publicly diminishing her work after years of painful gloating.

"The Flower of My Secret"'s story sounds ready for screwball comedy treatment, but in execution, its plot feels rather haphazard and messy, taking more time to ignite itself through speedy small talk than conversation that actually moves the plot forward. Consider the film opens with a false lead: we think we're about to watch the tragic story of a middle- aged woman losing her son in a motorcycle accident, but it turns out to be a organ donation center training video in production. Scenes like this are amusing, yet they don't go anywhere. As a whole, "The Flower of My Secret" has no problem when it comes to being compulsively watchable. Cohesiveness, identity, authenticity — those are the issues that make the film so unmistakably flawed. The characters spend a whole lot of time gabbing and tearing up, but we never find ourselves entwined in their conversations, moved by their sudden outbursts of emotion.

Almodóvar, though, is incapable of making a movie that isn't stunning in its artistic vision. Photographically and directionally, "The Flower of My Secret" is visionary and eye- poppingly deliberate in its color; missing is interest that makes its look have meaning. But Parades gives a wonderful performance and Almodóvar sustains maturity — there are diamonds to be found in the candy colored rough.

Having seen most of Almodovar films, I have to say I prefer his more hilarious, comical, absurd ones. High heels, Talk to her are two other examples of Almodovar doing almost straightforward "drama" - though not the usual drama fare.

That said, this touched me a lot. Without excluding some typically unusual -hillariously funny- Almodovar dialogues and "usual suspects", this film is about pasiion, lust, bitterness, disappointment, joy. It is, after all, about life. Acting of the lead actress is top notch, it's human as far as it goes. No silly plot tricks, no deus ex machina, this is not another sorry a$$ American drama with easy solutions or a bright happy end.

Almodovar is one of the greatest artists of film!

The opening of 1995's The Flower of My Secret is a false start, a deliberate build up to a pretty shocking reveal which is then rendered entirely fake. Whilst acting as another example of Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar's knack of being able to incorporate, at least to a very basic degree on this occasion, texts within texts; such a sequence goes rather a long way in capturing how he does most of what it is he looks at in his films. That is to say, the sequence is thrust onto us in an unspectacular manner by way of two different compositions evoking a somewhat televisual sense, before a gradual reveal of one item; followed by another; followed by the fleshing out of who these people really are in a manner that feels cinematic. It's this establishment of an idea, subject matter or basis for a bog-standard and quite dramatic scene being revisited and toyed with to deliver something anew; much in the way Almodóvar revisits ordinary, but rather troubled, inhabitants of his native Spain and provides new tales mixed with both new and familiar flaws these people possess.

The Flower of my Secret is more of a wavy tale than I'd have liked it to be, too often getting bogged down with scenes and sequences that detract from what is primarily a film about: a woman battling with her identity in the form of an alter-ego as she undergoes changes in her life. In a film all about the relationship a woman has with her employers, herself and her husband, the scenes that carry the least dramatic weight are the one's in which the same woman must balance her role as a daughter and sister. But these incidences only occur sparsely and much like the lead heroine of the title whom totters around the general area in an unbalanced and somewhat confused manner, there is that consistent feeling the film itself will similarly do the same as it shoots about from one interaction to another. But The Flower of My Secret pulls together, if only just, but a more concentrated and more narrow view on these people and their problems would've sufficed even more.

The film covers Leo Macías (Paredes), a middle aged female writer whom works within fiction under an alias of Amanda Gris, someone many would like to find out the true identity of through her success. As an individual going through a troubled time, furthered by issues of a marital nature, the want to filter the true feelings, emotions and experiences through into her writing becomes more prominent – something the publishers don't want, because the winning formula of writing these upbeat and romantic novels has already brought untold success to both Leo and the company. Leo is established in her very first scene to be a person who has difficulty removing the boots that she wears, while half her journey in the piece is the real inability to additionally rid herself of this alter-ego she has burdened herself with by way of writing cheery, uplifting tales and generally giving everyone what it is they crave. Aware the boots come with a problem that renders them difficult to get off, but doing so anyway because of her husband Paco (Arias) who is based in Belgium with the United Nations, this idea of going through a grinder for the sake of others seems to catch up with Leo early on; something that will carry on into her role as a writer as the film progresses.

Almodóvar's film is full of quirks, establishing things such as the boundary between reality and fiction that exists by way of the first scene before branching out and presenting happy-go-lucky novel fiction that the author wants to give an edge - but the film isn't a rounded experience. Another quirk, which arrives in the form of a subplot of sorts, is the nature of Leo's brief interaction with her husband Paco; a man charged with serving, protecting, nurturing and caring for those in far off places following an assigning to then war-torn Bosnia, but he does not much possess the said characteristics when thinking of his own wife and marriage, while Leo is stuck in nurturing a side of her in Amanda that she wants to rid herself of. In what is a seemingly self-aware jab at his own work, given how limited the presence of sexually active characters and the study of items of a sexual nature are in general, The Flower of my Secret is decidedly 'un-raunchy'. Indeed, when Leo and Paco initially meet in the doorway of the apartment; their embrace is somewhat censored by a conveniently placed reflective object of sorts while later on, the suggestion of anything steamy between the two is greeted with proverbial bombshells. Later on, a bathroom mirror will act as the means for the camera to whip pan toward as they reflect on where they are with each other and he reveals that certain plans have changed.

Almodóvar is a clever film-maker, able to build relationships between characters and play out some pretty dramatic set-pieces in the process. Unfortunately, The Flower of my Secret is only marginally interesting; with flashes of intrigue and border-line brilliance combining with above examples of intricate film-making. Here, I think to cram in a flailing marriage; with a career path in the balance; with another man falling in love with Leo; with her partially blind mother desperately wanting to return to the rural place she knows best, known only as 'the village', is biting off more than the film can comprehensively chew. Almodóvar is too good-a film-maker to make material of this nature unwatchable, but the flitting around he does as his lead tumbles in and out from one location to another gets a tad tiresome more often than not; as lots of different threads are all drawn together to form the basis for an arc of a woman whose life threatens to capitulate.

A big disappointment. Right from the start, Leo (Marisa Paredes) is too weirdly frantic and needy. She cries way too much. It gets irritating. She is supposed to be intelligent and perceptive. Why can't she see that Paco no longer cares about her? He all but wears a sign. Betty says as much. Angel is instantly in love with Leo, although she is an obvious basket case.

The arguments between Leo's mother and sister are a bit funny, but then they get irritating. Another irritating thing: Leo goes into a bar/café. She listens to the tragic song on the TV and she starts to cry. She goes on crying for way too long, with no dialogue. I hope you like the song, because it goes on forever.

Some of the digressions are too much. Leo's cook is a great artist and makes a triumphant return to the stage. It just seems absurd and uncredible, not whimsical or funny. The long sequence of medical workers role-playing about organ donations was a confusing way to start the movie, although there was a payoff.

This is a great role for Marisa Paredes. All of the other actresses are strong, too. The scenes of the women together are sometimes charming and always interesting and lively.

Ultimately, there were too many plot twists and turns that were not convincing. Almadovar's next films were Live Flesh and All About My Mother, two of the great ones. They are completely absorbing, without the irritating and absurd elements of Flower of My Secret.

Yes, the line at the beginning is also on another movie: "All about my mother", where Manuela (who is the transplant coordinator at a Hospital) received the same news, with almost the same words. Although, excellent movie and all actors stunning. Chus Lampreave as funny as always, and Rosy De Palma nailed the middle aged lady character. I totally recommend this movie. One of the most dramatic movies from P. Almodovar. Marisa Paredes is a great actress, and had some main roles on Almodovar movies (All about my mother,High Heels/tacones lejanos) and this one. Juan Echanove gets the Teddy Bear tenderness, I just love him. Joaquin Cortes had a brief role, and had a little dance. I think he is very innovative and very powerful Bailaor. I tried to find "High Heels" but it seems very hard to find in the States. I'll keep trying.

Leo Macias writes sentimental novels with great success but hidden under a pseudonym, Amanda Gris. She is unhappy with her professional life and with her husband, a soldier working in Brussels and Bosnia that is never at home. She will try anything to change her life.

I thought from the description that this was going to be about a man writing as a woman so he could write romance novels. I thought that was quite clever, considering the number of women who had used male pseudonyms to get published over the years... but it turns out that Leo is a woman, so this crushed by hopes.

What turns out to be the most interesting thing is how this film foreshadows other, better Almodovar films. In "The Flower of my Secret", the plot of Leo's new, gritty novel is stolen and used as the basis of a film screenplay The Freezer. In a coup of life imitating art, a decade later it formed the basis of Almodóvar's own film "Volver". Another sub-plot scene from "The Flower of my Secret", the student doctors being taught how to persuade a grieving mother to allow her son's organs to be used in transplant, was used as the starting point of Almodóvar's "All About My Mother".

This film, by Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar, is centred on Leo Macías. She is an authoress who writes trashy romances under the nom de plume Amanda Gris. When her marriage starts running into problems, she loses the inspiration for such work; unfortunately for her she is contracted to write five such books a year for three years. A friend suggests working for a newspaper's literary department; they ask her to review Amanda Gris's latest anthology!

I've watched a reasonable number of Almodóvar's films and so far I've enjoyed them all. This might not be among the best, it is too normal for that, but it is still solid and might be a good introduction to his work. As one might expect it is very much character driven; like many of his works it is the female characters that stand out the most. The story is fairly simple but effective as a vehicle for the various characters. Most of the action takes place indoors but it still feels cinematic rather than theatrical; the domestic locations giving a feeling on intimacy. The characters are a lot of fun; perhaps a little exaggerated but in a deliberate and not excessive way. The cast, most notably Marisa Paredes, who plays Leo, does a fine job. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of Almodóvar or those looking to get into his work.

These comments are based on watching the film in Spanish with English subtitles.

Though I found there to be just a bit too much frenetic dialogue, this is still quite a funny evaluation of a failing relationship. It's "Leo" (Marisa Paredes) who has just gone off the boil a bit for her soldier husband "Paco" (Imanol Aris) whose career takes him from war zone to war zone with little time for her. What now ensues is a gradual character evolution for this author of romantic fiction who is conflicted by her affection, to an extent, for "Paco" whilst realising that that way madness lies and a new life is imperative. Now the thrust of the story is hardly innovative. She has a few character flaws of her own - she does like a bottle or two and to be fair to him, it's not like he has just taken up the military responsibilities he has always had. She also has a mother (Manuela Vargas) who might wear down the best of us, and after a while we begin to need more sustained comedy to help us escape the increasing melodrama. Usually Almodovar is better at providing that, but here - well not quite so much. That said, though, this features an engaging effort from an on-form and lively Paredes and her gay friend "Angel" (Juan Echanove) provides an effective foil now and again as this meanders, entertainingly enough, through the women's life of longing, passion and frustration. This is not a film I reckon I will recall for long, but it's a decent enough watch while it's on.

Very good and interesting film. Those who like stories dealing with paradox and stuff will love it. The acting by the leading actress, Marisa Paredes, is fantastic. The art direction is very good, love the contrast of the colors and how they affect our perception about the characters. It has good production values. Again, it may not touch in new grounds on filmmaking, but is an extremely enjoyable film regardless. Keep in mind that is the first Almodovar film I've watched, so yeah. I heard somewhere it disappoints the true "Almodovar" fans. Well, I cant say nothing about it other than I don't give a damn for now.