Overview
A tale of love and obsession unfolds in the heart of Madrid, where passion ignites and jealousy brews.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- passionate
- melancholic
- sensuous
- arthouse film night
- spanish cinema evening
What critics said
Critics broadly admire the film's visual brilliance, Hitchcockian suspense, and first-class performances while finding it less accomplished than Almodóvar's finest work.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Blind screenwriter Harry Caine's present-day life gives way to flashbacks revealing his former identity as Mateo Blanco and his relationship with Lena.
Mateo's directing, Lena's performance, the financed production, and the recovered footage make filmmaking inseparable from love, memory, and survival.
Ernesto Martel's jealousy leads him to monitor Lena and Mateo through his son and to obtain daily footage of the production.
The film combines primary colors, passionate relationships, wealth, guilt, and family tension in an overtly stylized emotional register.
Films like Broken Embraces, and why
volver
shared almodóvarian melodrama, female-centered emotional intensity, vivid color, and intertwined past and present
talk to her
shared obsessive romance, artistic identity, guilt, and a psychologically charged melodramatic thriller structure
vertigo
shared hitchcockian suspense, destructive jealousy, doomed desire, and an elegant visual surface concealing sinister motives
mulholland drive
shared cinema-within-cinema themes, fractured chronology, romantic obsession, and noirish emotional mystery
Movie Details
- Director
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Release Date
- 2009-03-18
- Runtime
- 127 min
- Rating
- 7.2 / 10 (736)
Cast
- Penélope Cruz
- Lluís Homar
- Blanca Portillo
- José Luis Gómez
- Rubén Ochandiano
- Tamar Novas
- Ángela Molina
- Chus Lampreave
- Kiti Mánver
- Lola Dueñas
Where to watch in United States
- Rent
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
- Buy
- Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home
Streaming options come from TMDB and change over time.
Common questions
- What is Broken Embraces about?
- A blind Madrid screenwriter reconstructs the passionate affair and jealous surveillance that shattered his former life as a filmmaker.
- What is Broken Embraces like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of Broken Embraces as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is Broken Embraces violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in Broken Embraces as mild.
- What did critics think of Broken Embraces?
- Critics broadly admire the film's visual brilliance, Hitchcockian suspense, and first-class performances while finding it less accomplished than Almodóvar's finest work.
- Which films are like Broken Embraces?
- Films with a similar feel include volver, talk to her, vertigo, and mulholland drive.
- How long is Broken Embraces?
- Broken Embraces runs 127 minutes.
- Where can I watch Broken Embraces?
- In United States, Broken Embraces is available to rent or buy from Amazon Video, Apple TV Store, Google Play Movies, YouTube, Fandango At Home.
