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One of my all time favorites.

hyped garbage

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

I liked the way director Pedro Almodóvar had some fun with this picture during an opening scene when he had Esteban (Eloy Azorín) rename "All About Eve" into Spanish properly. It had the effect of drawing even more attention to the title of this film, "Todo sobre mi madre". It was also noteworthy that he provided an homage of sorts to two American movie classics, the other being "A Streetcar Named Desire". As for this story, I'm not quite sure what to make of it all. Try as I might, I can't imagine someone of basically a normal disposition like Manuela (Cecilia Roth) to be involved in so many dysfunctional relationships as she encountered in Barcelona. The search for her deceased son's father and her ex-husband was noble, but the journey revealed an entire retinue of people that would make your skin crawl under normal circumstances. The topper was the transsexual Lola (Toni Cantó), who turned out to be the ex-husband, and also the father of a baby by a nun! It would have to be explained how that relationship ever came about, as the circumstance is presented as given which is just too much of a fantastical stretch to warrant consideration.I don't know much about director Almodóvar, other than what I've read on his IMDb bio page, but if this picture is any indication, it appears that he goes for something of shock value to his stories. Which is OK I guess, but it would have the tendency to put off some viewers with his odd characters and even odder situations. It's curious how he attempts to convey the humanity of his characters, but it's also enlightening to know how he actually describes some of them - "If I lived like my characters, I would have been dead before I made sixteen films". Which seems to illustrate my point.

With outstanding character development, excellent direction, deft pacing and a thematically rich, original and always entertaining and involving plot, All About My Mother is a fantastic film which has its minor flaws including a bit too fast paced approach and at times a bit soapy nature, but it is otherwise a terrific movie with its fair share of likable and sympathetic characters, excellent tone ranging from serious to funny, wonderful themes superbly explored, authentic story, great influences and it is all around an engaging, smart and incredibly well acted movie and a standout work from the director. www.simbasible.com

"Todo Sobre Mi Madre (All About my Mother)" is Almodóvar's 1999 film.Before I begin, I want to mention an observation about Almodóvar's films, What makes him one of the most unique filmmaker in the whole crowd is his possessiveness or obsession for the most complex human emotions and socially Unapproved Human relations. And I also must add that for some reason he also likes medical equipments very much and he film it very passionately.Golden Globe winner "All About my Mother" is the story of "Manuela". How she experience the same pattern of her life again when her young son "Esteban" dies in a car accident on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. After this incident her life revolves one more time in the same pattern. She experience the same emotions, and encounter the people in the similar way It happened with her 17 years Ago.Actually in my experience Life always follows a pattern, Most of us just don't notice it. But those who live in the state of awareness can easily experience how the past appears again in the future. It's like going through the same lesson twice, like revising it to make sure that I learn it very well.The way Almodóvar's portray the characters in his films, It demands very high level of emotional and psychological sense of human life to understand its genuineness. Else an Audience might misinterpret it.But What I like most About Almodóvar's film, even after whole complexities in the end "EVERYTHING IS FINE" and If it's not fine, It's not the end.

"All About My Mother" is an extremely well put together film that is an intriguing combination of art-house and Oscar bait. Almodorav has managed to put together a movie with a strong emotional core all the while making some interesting stylistic choices. At the heart of this movie is a story of a mother come to terms with the recent death of her only son on his 17th birthday. We see her give up her life in Madrid as a nurse and return to Barcelona where she had a more tumultuous life before moving to Madrid.The movie does an excellent job establishing the relationship between the mother and the son so when the son dies one can really feel the emotional impact. This is where we first see Cecilia Roth shine in the role of Manuela. We are really able to feel that this is a difficult time in her life and that when she decides to pick up and start her life over we understand. When she gets to Barcelona we are immediately thrust into the underworld and are introduced to Antonia San Juan who does an excellent playing Manuela's old friend a pre-op transvestite. She does come off as being a bit over the top at times, but is never out of character. There is a scene where Agrado was given the opportunity to put on a one women show she seems to drop the ball and a scene with a lot of potential was fairly tame. My biggest problem with the movie is the relationship between Penelope Cruz's character, Rosa, and Manuela. I was confused on how Rosa came to trust Manuela so completely so quickly. I do not think that Cruz did anything special with the character, which was unfortunate because she is such an important part of the story of Manuela. Since this movie is about Manuela as a mother and since she adopts Rosa's baby, when she dies in child birth, it is disappointing that there was not more of a connection between Roth and Cruz on screen. I did love some of the transition shots used and the one at the end with the train going from Barcelona and then back again was neat. These type of shots along with the soundtrack keeps this movie from being too boring and not just a rehashing of the same story. Also I like the almost meta aspect of the theater production of A Streetcar Name Desire. I enjoyed how it was interwoven into the story and how the actress and the story play itself became a part of Manuela's growth. Watching her take care of the principle actresses and Rosa allowed the viewer to never lose track of what made Manuela a mother. Overall this movie was extremely well put together, but there were weaknesses to be had. At times the movie lost focus on Manuela and focused a bit too much on Agrado or Rosa's stories. It was a fresh take on what normally would have been a boring and bland Oscar bait movie.