Saturday, January 18, 2020

Pain and Glory

Today I saw Pain and Glory, starring Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz.

Salvador (Banderas) is an aging film director who is suffering a rapid decline in health. Through a series of events, he looks back on his life—both with fondness and regret—over many of the choices he's made.

I seldom look at the time during Pedro Almodovar films, but I'm sad to say that I did during this one.

Though Banderas is wonderful in the role, it feels like we're watching a dreary loop of his past, which is both easy to anticipate and anticlimactic to experience.

It's easy to see that Almodovar wanted to cover big themes (as he usually tends to do), addressing desire, betrayal, death, etc. but he approaches it with a frustratingly slow pace, which does no favors for the audience's attention span.

The pockets of humor were well-executed, but too far and few between to keep the overall vibe light enough.

A disappointing result from such a talented team of filmmakers.

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