Very wordy, almost feels like a theater piece at times. A young man, somewhat lost, comes from Argentina to Madrid to be with his distanced, emotionally detached filmmaker father. But he ends up spending almost as much time with his dad's sexy, druggie younger mistress, (an incandescent performance by Cecilia Roth) and his dad's hedonistic, bi-sexual actor best friend.
Entertaining and moving at times, the central character (the filmmaker-father) is so removed, and so hurtful it becomes hard to understand why the others continue to put up with him. It also gets a bit repetitive, as it becomes obvious that each time the father starts to open up, he'll just close down again. And it can feel very wordy.
It reminded me of a pretty good Woody Allen drama. If it had more humor it might have made it even better. Still, I'm glad I saw it, and I find moments and performances stick with me. And on second viewing I liked it a bit more, forgiving the theatricality, and enjoying getting to know these people.
Entertaining and moving at times, the central character (the filmmaker-father) is so removed, and so hurtful it becomes hard to understand why the others continue to put up with him. It also gets a bit repetitive, as it becomes obvious that each time the father starts to open up, he'll just close down again. And it can feel very wordy.
It reminded me of a pretty good Woody Allen drama. If it had more humor it might have made it even better. Still, I'm glad I saw it, and I find moments and performances stick with me. And on second viewing I liked it a bit more, forgiving the theatricality, and enjoying getting to know these people.