All About My Mother

I got bored. Even though I was well aware of the acclaimed and positively reviewed film I was watching, even though I expected it to be slightly "different" than what I'm used to with the vast majority of today's productions, and even though I tried hard to keep up with the story and relate to the unusual heroines, the boredom weighed on me just as much as the indifference to almost everything those ladies had to go through. Almodóvar is undoubtedly a talented filmmaker and deserves admiration for his courage to bring emotion to the ranks of transvestites and prostitutes, but most of the time I was aware that we had sadly missed each other and even the seductive gaze of Penélope Cruz was not enough to bring us together. Maybe next time... :) 70% (08/10/2013)

Almodóvar this time missed the complexities of the human soul and for quite a while, it bothered me that besides the main character, I couldn't find even a little ordinary character with whom the viewer could identify. In the flood of prostitutes, transsexuals, or women with insurmountable prejudices, I got lost in the first hour and was bored heavily. That's why I was even more surprised by the final catharsis, which has a significant power and saves what can be saved. However, as a whole, it simply doesn't harmonize at all, no matter how much I would have wished for the opposite due to the popularity of the film. (02/09/2007)

Pedro Almodóvar doesn't become a director I love this time around either, but thanks to the Prague City theaters' production, I'm somewhat more comfortable with the Oscar-winning phenomenon All About My Mother. It really helped me to see both Penélope Cruz and Evellyn Pacoláková in the same role, because only in this way could Hermana Rosa become a real character in my eyes and not just a variation of a familiar face. And I could go on. All About Eve is better in the theatrical version, but the transvestite Agrado is obviously better in the film, because what Vladimir Marek does on the stage is a disaster. All in all, I'll try a few more things from the Almodóvar/Cruz collection, but I think we're done. His world exists on the completely opposite side of cinema from the one in which I exist. On paper, the story must have looked great - all the coincidences, transvestites, intersections with art, and cheeky one-liners - but in its final form, it's just about improbable situations, cinematic coincidences, and glycerine tears. (02/19/2015)

Theatrically twisted, unfettered melodramatic and precipitously colorful... Almodóvar talking about life being like playing a role, a mother, a woman, a man – an intelligent and consistent unit with characteristically supple personal stamp (how much the music of Albert Iglesias means to a Spaniard!). A queer film, but one that does not close itself off to the majority whatsoever. Personally, I don’t know what to think about the comedic stylization in certain parts. It seems to me that out of the hypersensitivity of maternal vicissitudes, Almodóvar dipped into Broken Embraces. His self-reflexive mask of an intellectual is probably a tiny bit closer to me than the pastel softness All About My Mother. (02/08/2010)

What Almodóvar deserves to be commended for is his ability to see into people perfectly, he can excellently portray characters that might otherwise bother the viewer. And I think that some people will be bothered, but those are simply prejudices. "All About My Mother" is a film about how life can be shitty, but there are still moments that you just can't replace. It's a story about how life isn't always beautiful, but that doesn't mean it's only ugly. It's up to us how we manage it and what we focus on, whether it's the past or the present. Beautiful, but definitely not for everyone. (04/17/2014)