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Pain & Glory

Country: Spain, Language: Spanish, 113 mins

Original Title

Dolor y Gloria
  • Director: Pedro Almodóvar
  • Writer: Pedro Almodóvar
  • Producer: Agustín Almodóvar

CGiii Comment

It took a while...but, the wait is finally over...Pedro Almodóvar is back...with - without a shadow of doubt - inarguably, his best [and most mature] film [to date].

It happens to everyone, when we reach a certain age...those moments of reflection and recollection that continually [and gently] lap into your consciousness. Memories, part forgotten, always remembered...of lost lovers, faded friends, youthful mistakes and temporary triumphs. Oooh...the pain...that has acquiesced into a tolerable regret. Aaah...the glory of those yester-happy-days, feasts for thought...with side dishes of smiles and tears. Life...what a wonderful, arduous journey it is.

Señor Almodóvar captures it all and covers it all...with cinematic glory. This is a beauty to watch. A gem to listen to...and, a bitter-sweet thrill to experience. When autobiography is mixed with tragic fiction...those lines [of truth] become [all] fuzzy with feeling. Flashbacks to the idyll of childhood pitted against the reality of the now...Penélope Cruz [simply] dazzles, Antonio Banderas [ruefully] embraces...the memories, the decline, the here-and-now...with drug-addled dignity, suffering and suffrage. This is a performance not to be missed, this is an actor's finest moment.

Both human and inhumane...compare and contrast, the ravages that make life so hard-line and fine...this is what Señor Almodóvar has achieved.

The highest [really, the pinnacle] of praise.


Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

A film director reflects on the choices he's made in life as past and present come crashing down around him.

Cast & Characters

Penélope Cruz as Jacinta
Antonio Banderas as Salvador Mallo
Nora Navas as Mercedes
Asier Etxeandia as Alberto Crespo
Cecilia Roth as Zulema
Leonardo Sbaraglia as Federico
Raúl Arévalo as Padre
Eva Martín as Radióloga
Julieta Serrano as Madre
Julián López
César Vicente as Albañil
Rosalía
Pedro Casablanc as Dr. Galindo
Agustín Almodóvar
Susi Sánchez as Beata