Broken Embraces Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Broken Embraces Blu-ray Movie Review

Another fine film from Sony Pictures Classics.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 24, 2010

Films have to be finished, even if you do it blindly.

Broken Embraces (or Los Abrazos Rotos in its native Spanish tongue), the latest picture from the team of Director Pedro Almodóvar and Actress Penélope Cruz -- who worked together on Live Flesh, All About My Mother, and Volver -- may be the tandem's finest achievement to date, the picture a heartbreaking, erotic, and mysterious journey into the lives of several players and their interactions in both 2008 and 1990s Madrid. But that's just what's on the surface. Highly metaphoric, superficially lightly but thematically heavily atmospheric, and told with a simplistic elegance despite a complexly-weaved plot that's rarely achieved in cinema, Broken Embraces solidifies Almodóvar as a master visual storyteller and manipulator of emotion, his latest film exploring a myriad of issues, not the least of which are human perception both visual and emotional within the context of loves won and lost amidst the world of filmic storytelling and the vast difference in perception between one take -- or one moment -- and the next.

Unbroken embrace.

It's the year 2008, and blind filmmaker Harry Caine (Lluís Homar) is visited by a mysterious young man named Ray X (Rubén Ochandiano) who wants Harry to pen a fictionalized version of his life story into a shooting script. Harry refuses, but his discovery of Ray's identity leads him to recall his younger days when he was known by his given name, Mateo Blanco, a man with sight and a vision for a picture that would come to be called Chicas y Maletas, or Girls and Suitcases. Magdalena Rivas (Cruz) is a secretary and part-time call girl who works for the wealthy Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez), but she dreams of doing more with her life and lands a part in Mateo's movie while also instantly landing in his heart. The two begin a torrid love affair that morphs into a steady, loving relationship, much to the dismay of Ernesto, who himself loves Magdalena and is financially backing Mateo's film. As events unfold both in Harry Caine's past and Mateo Blanco's future, a tale of love, loss, vision, anger, and regret comes into focus as the lives of several individuals intersect and fiddle with fate.

Broken Embraces exists not only to tell a story but to examine how it is that stories are told both in film and in life, not only thematically and visually but on a deeper and more complex level. The picture's primary and, indeed, secondary "film within a film" serve dual purposes, including that of a catalyst for the player's actions and revelations as well as, and more pertinent to theme rather than structure, a symbolic reinforcement of Broken Embraces's ideas on visual and physical perceptions both of the world as it is seen and as it is perceived. Indeed, Almodóvar uses filmmaking as a metaphor for understanding life and its many complexities; it's sometimes about pointing and shooting and capturing images in the raw and sometimes about the delicate process of getting things right after several tries and assembling them in the correct order. In film there are many chances to get things just right; in life there is but one. In film, a story can be manipulated to make audiences feel anger or sadness or love or hate; in life, there's no editing, no cutting, no rearranging. Life is what it is, fleeting as it may be, and it takes not a master editor and keen eyesight but instead a perception of what's good and worthy and what's worthy of discard to build a focused and complete picture with the caveat that there's but a single chance to get it right.

Almodóvar delicately builds his picture with a skill of both the physical and emotional kind; Broken Embraces' themes on sight, perception, acting, and life are captured in a colorfully-assembled structure that's intricate but incredibly easy to embrace, the picture a structural work of art but also a contextually ripe experience that lingers long after the picture's conclusion for its wonderful realization of the inner-workings of the human condition. Almodóvar's lends to the picture something of a throwback feel but grounds the movie in a modern look; Broken Embraces spans some 15 years but the back-and-forth shifting from one period to the next never interferes with flow, look, structure, or purpose. In fact, the director's ability to layer the picture so precisely with unraveling secrets in the building of the larger story in almost every sequence proves as mesmerizing as the picture's thematic developments. Additionally, Almodóvar's lead actors deliver impeccable efforts, each able to convey many of the picture's deeper dramatic elements not always with dialogue and physical posturing but with merely a look, a credit to both the performers' understanding of the story and Almodóvar's ability to just-so-precisely capture the moment on film. Penélope Cruz physically ignites the screen but also does much more than look good for the camera, her character the film's central focus and the actress capturing the many overtones and nuances that bring the story into harmony. Lluís Homar, however, is the picture's master performer, playing what amounts to two different characters trapped in the same body but through them both wielding the picture's overreaching themes of sight and purpose of vision, not only in fiction but in life. José Luis Gómez, Tamar Novas, and Blanca Portillo also deliver strong supporting performances.

Broken Embraces Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sony delivers Broken Embraces to Blu-ray with a competent 1080p, 2.35:1-framed transfer. The image often looks flat and with minimal visual pizzazz, though it does deliver fair detailing and strong color reproduction. One of the transfer's most notable aspects are the often soft backgrounds with edges around the frame that sometimes appear downright blurred, though this seems more in-line with the director's intended vision for the film rather than any misstep along the way to the transfer to Blu-ray. Likewise, fine detail can appear slightly undefined at worst or, as the case most often is, solid but unremarkable, save for a seaside scene featuring Magdalena and Mateo where hats, clothing, skin, and even the surrounding sands appear intricately detailed and textured. On the flip side, color reproduction is easily this transfer's strength. As one might expect of a Pedro Almodóvar motion picture, Broken Embraces is awash in bright hues, and while most appear as naturally reproduced rather than excessively or otherwise phonily rendered, bright red shades to, seemingly deliberately, stand out with a bit more punch and vigor than do any other hues. Flesh tones appear spot-on, but blacks tend to waver and minute banding is visible in select scenes. Sony's Blu-ray release of Broken Embraces is competent but not extraordinarily film-like, but it still delivers the goods and appears to remain rather faithful to Pedro Almodóvar's vision for the film, though the absence of a commentary track or documentary on the disc makes it a bit harder to know for sure.

Broken Embraces Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

A Spanish-language DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack accompanies the Blu-ray release of Broken Embraces; no dubbed English language track is available, though this disc does default to English subtitles. This track is direct and contemplative, with little in the way of powerful beats or massive surround activity. The film's musical score is delivered smoothly and competently; it's clean and precise with admirable clarity across the front and a subtle support structure in the rear. Additionally, heavier beats penetrate the listening area during a few club scenes that deliver some welcome low-end punch to the proceedings, the only real spice in an otherwise effectively vanilla soundtrack. Background ambience is minimal but sufficiently effective; listeners will note passing vehicles, a light din of a busy city street, or various seaside atmospherics in one scene. A dialogue-intense picture, Broken Embraces enjoys superior clarity in that department. Broken Embraces won't push any sound system to its limits, but Sony has nevertheless delivered an exceptionally faithful soundtrack that's worthy of the film.

Broken Embraces Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Broken Embraces arrives on Blu-ray with a small collection of bonus materials. The Cannibalistic Councillor (480p, 7:34) is an original short film, directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and featuring a character from Broken Embraces as the central focus. Pedro Directs Penélope (480p, 5:52) offers a peak into the directorial process as Almodóvar works with Cruz during the filming of a scene from Broken Embraces. Next up is On the Red Carpet: The New York Film Festival Closing Night (1080p, 3:13), a brief glimpse into the goings-on at the festival and intercut with several interview clips with The Film Society of Lincoln Center's Program Director Richard Peña, Broken Embraces Director Pedro Almodóvar, and Actress Penélope Cruz. Variety Q&A with Penelope Cruz (1080i, 6:18) features the actress answering questions from Variety's Todd McCarthy, intercut with snippets from the film. Also included is a collection of three Broken Embraces deleted scenes (1080p, 12:20); the Broken Embraces theatrical trailer (1080p, 1:45); BD-Live functionality; and additional 1080p trailers for An Education, Coco Before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Volver, Rachel Getting Married, Frozen River, Adoration, The Damned United, and "Breaking Bad"

Broken Embraces Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Broken Embraces shows Pedro Almodóvar as a master cinematic craftsman of the more deeply intricate, purposeful, and indeed even personal kind whose films might take patience and the audience's utmost attention both during and long after to truly appreciate, but the rewards are many as this picture stays with the viewer long after its completion and its many intricacies slowly build and form for each viewer a personal but no less purposeful moviegoing experience. Much like the pictures of Atom Egoyan (Adoration, The Sweet Hereafter), Broken Embraces challenges the mind but does so in the form of a structurally magnificent picture that's emotion visualized and drama realized at the deepest of levels. Even through Broken Embraces' more dramatic and purposeful themes, Director Pedro Almodóvar has also crafted a fun and breezy throwback-type of Mystery that's as engaging as it is entertaining, the picture a complete experience that's worthy of repeat viewings and greater discussion as to its merits and ideas that linger well beyond the film's two-hour runtime. Broken Embraces makes for another good Blu-ray release from Sony. Sporting a solid technical presentation but unfortunately lacking a more purposeful and in-depth supplemental package, the disc nevertheless earns a recommendation based on the quality of the film.