Coming Soon to DVD: 'Broken Embraces'

Lluis Homar stars as the former Mateo Blanco, a screenwriter and ex-director who changed his name to Harry Caine after losing his sight in an automobile accident. A past scandal suddenly resurfaces when the news arrives that the producer of one of Harry's old movies, Girls and Suitcases, a corrupt stockbroker named Ernesto Martel (Jose Luis Gomez), has died.

For mysterious reasons, this makes Harry's ex-production manager Judit (Blanco Portillo) nervous. Then Ernesto's son, Ray X (Ruben Ochandiano), turns up and asks Harry to help him write a vindictive script to get back at his vile father. The film subsequently flashes back to the early '90s, when Martel became involved with his secretary, Lena (Cruz), but Mateo also began to develop feelings for her, and auditioned her for Girls and Suitcases.

In response to Mateo's interest in Lena, the jealous Martel commissioned Ray to make a documentary about the making of his Girls and Suitcases film as an excuse to spy on the director and star. This enabled him to watch Mateo spiriting off with Lena right under his nose, and set the stage for the wily producer's elaborate revenge against Mateo.

Rogert Ebert from the Chicago Sun Times said, "A voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. As it ravished me, I longed for a freeze frame to allow me to savor a shot"

Peter Travers from Rolling Stone said, "Cruz exudes a sensual aura of mystery that holds you spellbound. And Almodovar, a true poet of cinema, creates images -- horrifying and healing -- that live inside your head like a waking dream. You want to miss a movie like that? I didn't think so."