Summary:
A former mental patient takes a former porn star prisoner in an attempt to convince her to marry him.
My Thoughts:
After watching “Pain and Glory” this year and loving it, I found I was struck by Almodovar’s direction style, so much so, that I knew I needed to go out of my way to see more of his films (besides “Pain and Glory”, I’d only seen “The Skin I Live In”, and that film left me feeling lukewarm). So, with Barnes and Noble’s bi-annual Criterion Collection sale underway, I decided that I would check out this film, whose darkly comedic premise alone was bizarre enough to make me chuckle.
“I Have Nothing, So I Have Nothing to Loose.”
Ricky (Antonio Banderas, “Woman On the Verge of A Nervous Breakdown”) is a well-meaning mental patient whom has just been ordered released from the hospital where he is staying. Immediately after his release, Ricky decides that he will find Marina (Victoria Abril, “High Heels”), a porn star with whom he had once had sex. Ricky’s plan is to make Marina love him, even if that means kidnapping her and tying her up until she comes to terms with his plan.
Almost immediately, I could tell that I was going to again like Almodovar’s style; his mis-en-scene is simply delicious. Everything in this film is vibrantly colorful, and the shots in general are just beautiful to behold. Spain simply looks alive under the lens of Almodovar, and this film, which I would say is the funniest of the films I’ve yet seen by him, is also certainly one of the liveliest. Almodovar’s writing also brings a fair amount of energy to this story, but I was surprised at how many elements from this film were also incorporated into his most recent film, “Pain and Glory”, particularly the attempt to buy heroin and the violent occurrence that happens during that process, and the use of a debilitated director approaching the end of his career. I know Almodovar can be a very autobiographical director, so I would not at all be surprised if being unable to work due to illness has been a constant worry of Almodovar’s since he began working. As for the repeated use of a sequence attempting to buy heroin, I read an interview with Almodovar where he said he, personally, never used the drug (not sure if he’d really want to admit that in public anyways, but that’s what he said), but in the 80s and 90s he was surrounded by a lot of people who did use the drug, and in that way it did affect his life. Those two things are rather minor in the overall quality of the film, but for a budding Almodovar fan, I found those little tidbits of info to be interesting.
Besides Almodovar’s directing, his attention to detail with his characters is wonderful, for all of the characters in this film are complex and unique in one way or another. Our protagonist, Ricky, is introduced to us when he’s just being released from a mental institution. Though the extent of their relationship is not explicitly stated, it is implied that the woman who runs the institution seems to have taken Ricky as her lover, and Ricky seems to be only a half-willing participant. This inappropriate involvement with the head nurse at a time when Ricky was most vulnerable (he had been committed to the institution), probably messed him up more than it did help him. It gives us a little insight into why he might think it’s a good idea to kidnap a porn star and try to make her love him. Marina’s character is also quite fascinating; we first meet her as she’s working on a movie set, and we quickly learn that she was a former porn star and a junkie, but she’s trying to turn her life around by getting clean and starring in a horror film. But though Marina is trying to turn over a new leaf, her life is an open book for all those who know her, and her reputation is far more defined by her past than it is by the actions she is currently taking. Her struggle to distance herself from her old life and redefine her life anew puts her in a weird, uneasy purgatorial state- trapped between a life of ugliness and a life of redemption. The transition seems to be so drastic that people really don’t know what to think of her, and this puts her in an isolated and vulnerable position (just like the vulnerability of Ricky’s character). Putting these two unstable characters together creates a wonderfully awkward and volatile situation, and there are plenty of tender moments than I never thought would’ve arisen in a story like this.
Verdict:
This is a delightful little dark comedy that has plenty of Almodovar’s style for fans of his work. I don’t think this film is nearly as compelling as his latest work, “Pain and Glory”, but this film is also thirty years old; it should be no surprise Almodovar has grown as a filmmaker. If you’re looking for a quirky (and sometimes a bit kinky) comedy, then this film will certainly fit that bill.
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