Pain And Glory (Dolor y Gloria)
Dir. Pedro Almodovar / Dur. 112 mins
In A Nutshell:- An ageing film director whose career has stalled takes stock of his current and past life.
The Good:- I’ve only seen a couple of Pedro Almodovar films but one of the things I particularly liked about them was the sense of narrative surprise - at no point did I have a strong sense of where this was going to end up. The same was definitely true here - which made for a satisfying feeling when it did come to a fitting conclusion. There’s a strong sense of the meta in it - there’s a thread of autobiography running through it given that it deals with a film director (although it is still a fiction as Alomdovar did say in the Q&A that he’s weaved together elements from his own childhood as well as other friends and family members). The cast are uniformly strong but the highest plaudits must go to Antonio Banderas here who delivers a great performance - measured and understated. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen him in before and actually made me keen to see him in something similar. It looks great - Almodovar has a very keen visual style (and apparently tries out actors in costumes in front of different set elements until he gets the look he’s searching for!). It’s also very funny in places with the scenes around reconnecting with an old actor with whom he’d fallen out with as well as the scenes with his mother being some of the standouts.
The Bad:- The only very minor criticism that I would have is that there seems to be a very heavy amount of coincidence involved in propelling things along but that is a minor complaint indeed.
The Verdict:- While the film itself may be a meditation on a director who believes himself to be past his prime, there’s no such worry here with Almodovar. This is a filmmaker at the top of his game and is definitely on the list for my top films of the year.
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