Enrique Goded (Fele Martínez), who some might have seen in the bloodcurdling Thesis (1996), or in the mesmerizing Open Your Eyes (1997), is on the rise in the Spanish world of cinema as he has recently made a successful film.  Nonetheless, he is now struggling to come up with an equal or better idea for his next film when Ignacio Rodriguez (Gael García Bernal), from Amores perros (2000), Y tu mamá también (2001), and the recent Motorcycle Diaries (2004), appears from out of the blue.  Together Enrique and Ignacio used to attend a private catholic school where sexual and physical abuse was predominantly common while the Spanish dictator Francisco Franco heavily tainted the school regulations.  They were close friends, but they also discovered their first love in one another in the unforgiving school run by Catholic priests.  Now years later they reunite, as Ignacio offers him a film script that he has written based on their time at the Catholic School.

At first, the film seems to focus on the Catholic School where Ignacio was a victim of severe sexual abuse, which is told through the screenplay.  This is a clever curveball that Almodóvar throws at the audience, but it is necessary to understand what happens as the development of the story rests in the past of Ignacio and Enrique.  However, this review will not elaborate on the notion of what happens next, as it would skew the initial experience with the film.  Nonetheless, the script that Ignacio gives to Enrique portrays a world where Ignacio seeks a way to have an operation to reach what he desires the most – to be a woman.  Cleverly, Almodóvar throws out the gender boundaries of film noir, as he exchanges his femme fatale for a man that seeks womanhood through modern technology.  This displays Almodóvar’s ingenious way of telling a captivating story, as it does not follow the conventional rules that often make films one of dozens.

As mentioned previously, the film does not concentrate on the Catholic Church, but instead the aftermath of Ignacio’s education.  Through several turns the film illustrates what happen to Ignacio.  Much of this goes back to his years when the head priest sought him out for his own pleasure, which continues to trouble Ignacio well into adulthood.  This seems to be the reason why Ignacio wrote the script in the first place, as he tried to exorcise his demons while trying to find an existence that fits with his upbringing and education.  The story drifts between Enrique reading the script to the present time with occasional flashbacks that provide additional information in regards to the story.  Initially, it might seem a little confusing, however, Almodóvar has been nice enough to add a couple of side bars whenever there is a flashback or a scene from the script that Enrique reads.  Eventually, the audience will have gone through a very troubling, yet spellbinding tale that makes All About Eve (1950) seem like a Cinderella story.

DIRECTED BY

COUNTRY

Spain

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