Having watched this Pedro Almodóvar flick right on the heels of his "All About My Mother" might have been a bad idea. While both dealt with alternative lifestyle situations, where as "All About My Mother" did so with compassion, this movie did just the opposite.
None of the characters were likable nor even that interesting. The plot, while having great potential, revealed so much here and there that none of the plot twists were a surprise.
What was really disturbing was the use of feigned sexual acts between the characters. While there were a couple of good suggestive scenes involving the Juan/Angel character, such were enough to allow the reader to know what was likely going on behind closed doors and actually showing the action was redundant and did little to enhance the story. On the other hand, in the really disturbing scenes, involving what happened between Enrique and Fr. Manolo, no real interaction of any kind between such characters was shown.
As well, I found the ending to be very flat, as if I plodded through the whole tale to find nothing was really resolved for any of the characters.
None of the characters were likable nor even that interesting. The plot, while having great potential, revealed so much here and there that none of the plot twists were a surprise.
What was really disturbing was the use of feigned sexual acts between the characters. While there were a couple of good suggestive scenes involving the Juan/Angel character, such were enough to allow the reader to know what was likely going on behind closed doors and actually showing the action was redundant and did little to enhance the story. On the other hand, in the really disturbing scenes, involving what happened between Enrique and Fr. Manolo, no real interaction of any kind between such characters was shown.
As well, I found the ending to be very flat, as if I plodded through the whole tale to find nothing was really resolved for any of the characters.