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intereact!Rated: R (Restricted)
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Run Time: 101 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Color, Import, NTSC, Widescreen
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Product Description
Won Oscar (2000) for Best Foreign Language Film; also won 40 other awards with 28 additional nominations. PLOT OUTLINE: Young Esteban wants to become a writer and also to learn the identity of his father, which has been carefully concealed by the mother, Manuela. Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. ++++ DVD Features: This officially licensed release from South Korea is listed as NTSC Code 3 (will play on all region-free players or DVD-ROM drives); please check compatibility BEFORE purchasing. Widescreen 2.35:1 Anamorphic; Dolby Digital Sound. SPANISH w/optional English or Korean subtitles.
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5
1) It relaxed me rather than bore me [Rating: 4 out of 5]
This Spanish movie can be hard to swallow like most European ones that rule out action, suspense and fantasy in their quest for being artistic. The movie moves so slowly that you couldn't believe its Wikipedia article mentions so many events. Somehow, however, I enjoyed it. Its jazz background music is comforting. It made me feel at ease, relaxed. This movie is about a Manuela, a single mother of one teenager, who quits her entire normal life in Madrid to find her son's father in Barcelona in what seems to be mainly a sort of self-search quest, or just to have long vacations. Once in Barcelona she makes friends and gets involved in their lives especially Rosa's, a pregnant girl in disgrace, a very popular stereotype in Hispanic movie and TV productions, just like the American productions display very often the stereotype of the socially-troubled teenager. Rosa is played by the single truly famous character in this film, Penélope Cruz, although she suffers a big lack of charisma in here. Very curiously, Manuela does not look for a nursing job (her career) but anything else and complicates her life.The reason why Manuela looks for her son's dad is not marrying at all. This is a Liberal movie where religious people are the bad guys, but at least the movie doesn't get too harsh on them and virtually only shows an old religious strict mom in a few scenes. Meanwhile other groups like prostitutes and are the good ones, but not placed to high either. Thus this movie is not so much about totally evil guys vs. totally good ones as in most movies. This makes the movie very special because most of people's common lives are not so. One thing is that we all face opposition in our jobs, schools, when searching a mate, etc. Another very different thing is facing pure evil, which we usually don't face it, despite how cruel our common opposition can look; in the same way none of us are pure good. No, for good or bad, life is not as simple as good vs. bad as low-intelligence people struggle to stand for, like Bill O'Reilly or Al Sharpton for example. -Michael Crichton's speeches in his web site show wonderful examples how oversimplification is harmful- No wonder this movie won prizes, like an Oscar.Manuela looks for her son's dad to tell him their son died (in an accident) but it rather seems that she just wants some long vacations.... even when Spaniards already have more then 3 vacations weeks a year. Otherwise, did she really have to quit her job? Or maybe it's the curious tendency of everybody to make life more complicated, which also makes the film especial and real. But this is something that too many people will not admit.