It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

You will find all the familiar Almodovar devices here: telephones, drug use (cocaine in particular), dysfunctional families, sexual ambiguity, pedophile priests, and hospitals. These themes permeate his work, but they are woven intricately throughout this film.Pablo (Eusebio Poncela) is a writer/director of fantastic movies. He gets into the snares of an obsessive (Antonio Banderas in a great performance) who has a fatal attraction and will kill for his love. At the same time, he has to deal with his transvestite sister played by Carmen Maura (Volver, Women on the Verge, Matador) in another magnificent role.It is a melodrama about love as that is the overriding need for Banderas and for Maura, who has given up on men since her father left her. It is also about family. Of course, there is a crossing of genres as there is some comedy, but that is minor.Another magnificent Almodovar film.

I saw this film after having seen Bad Education, and there are many plot lines similar in both. I loved this film, not only am I a huge fan of Almodóvar, but in this film, the easy and simple beauty of the shots stood out. The acting was good, not amazing but good, particularly from Pablo and Tina. As well as directing beautifully, Almodóvar knows how to infuse a scene with sex, even if no sex is actually taking place-for example, when Antonio lights his cigarette of Pablo's. The film does become melodramatic towards the end, but I don't see this as a failing, melodrama, if done well, as it is here, need not be ridiculous

You shouldn't believe everything you read on video boxes. It is not a "riotous comedy," it's a deeply moving meditation on desire, from physical desire to the highest kinds of love. All of the characters are searching for it, and one of the questions raised by the movie is "What is it worth?" The final scene, in which Antonio and Pablo are in the apartment, just before Antonio kills himself, is the the linchpin of the movie. Love is serious, it is not a game, and love is worth dying for. That is why Pablo throws the typewriter out the window--everything he has written hasn't been worth the paper it is written on because it assumes that love is merely a toy. In the final scene, when Pablo takes up the dead Antonio in his arms and weeps, the visual image is a lamentation, like the Renaissance paintings of Mary holding Christ in her arms after he has been brought down from the cross. Of course it is funny too in places, but funny in a way that elaborates on and deepens the main theme of the movie, "What is love worth." What Antonio teaches Pablo is that love is worth everything. What you may have been confused by is the tone of the movie, which is operatic. This is not about an investigation of individual character. Like much opera, it investigates a deeply felt--and confusing--human emotion. It is one of the great gay movies, perhaps the greatest one.

This is my first Almodavar film. I'll confess we chose it mainly because we knew this had the enticing prospect of Antonio Banderas in gay sex scenes. Unfortunately, that is about all that this film has to recommend it. I consider myself a fairly sophisticated viewer, I like European films, "art" films, and I am generally able to recognize a quality film even if it is not to my particular taste.But this film was a complete blank to me. The plot was ridiculous, the characters lifeless, the box called it a "hilarious comedy" but I didn't laugh once. Loosly and awkwardly constructed, with a lot of pointless dialogue. I don't get this at all-- it seems like an amateurish effort. Can someone enlighten me?