Los abrazos rotos (2009)

A filmmaker recalls the incidents of his life concerning his love affair with
one of his actresses, the mistress of a millionaire.

In December 18, 2009, I wrote in this blog:
"In this, a Barbara Stanwyck lookalike plays an Audrey Hepburn lookalike in a
film produced by her Anthony Quinn lookalike husband. Los abrazos rotos's
primary contribution to universal wisdom is that you shouldn't ignore someone
who looks dead: he might be faking it just to see if you will ignore him. At a
particular point in the film, I yearned for a truly awful car accident to
happen, and my wish was promptly granted. Am I the psychic or is the filmmaker?
I couldn't find other reasons for this film's existence."

This is possibly one of my finest pieces of writing, but a second viewing of this film didn't piss me off as much as the first one had. And I even found a second reason for this film's existence, as given by the last sentence issued by the protagonist in the film: "A film should be finished, even if it has to be done blindly." This is the verdict on "Girl and Suitcases", the film within Los abrazos rotos; the latter feels like something which was blindly done right from the start. It just accumulates events, characters, and references to other films, without much of a center.

Rating: 45 (up from 20)