Love is the saddest thing when it goes away, like that Jobim song, Marco says to Lydia. He is describing his last failed relationship, Lydia says she needs to talk to him as he has been talking throughout their conversation, he smiles and agrees to talk later, it never happens.This is a Almodovar film and as the ballet teacher says 'nothing is simple'. We are introduced to Marco and Benigno who are sat together at theatre watching Piña Baush production. Marco starts crying and Benigno stares at him, these two men are the centre of the film.Benigno is a male nurse who works in the coma patients department. There he cares for Alicia a ballet dancer. He talks to her when he cleans her, manicures her nails, cuts her hair and when he massages her. He thinks she is listening to him, it is his version of a relationship.Marco meets Lydia who is a female bullfighter, she has just come out of a relationship, when Marco watches her taming a bull he feels attracted to her. He kills a snake for her and she feels attracted to him. It does lead us to think, is Marco attracted to vulnerable women that he can rescue? Marco goes to her next bullfight but Lydia is gored and ends up in a coma. On visiting her in hospital he and Benigno meet, they immediately become friends.There are the usual touches of Almodovar in the film, the dreamlike sequences and Alberto Iglesias music but there is also scene of the cleaning of patients which is almost scientific as is the close up of Lydia putting on her bullfighter suit. There is also a short film within which Benigno describes to Alicia, which we find out leads to a startling action.This is where the film takes a turn and it leads us to a point of moral dilemma, which you will need to see to judge for yourself. Hats off for the way it is done as it could have gone a different way.I enjoyed the film, it is thought proving and the acting is well done, particularly Javier Camara as Benigno, who is on top form.

The story is about two men and the girls they love who are now in comas. I really loved the beauty of the movie. The actors are fantastic and they are greatly helped by the entire cast and a weird but good story.Though initially I felt like that, the ending of the story made me change that opinion. I thought about it a lot. It was an ethical ending, but not the one that did poetic justice.Maybe if it was a documentary I would have liked it more.I personally would not recommend this movie, but seeing that it has a massive 8.0 rating here, I guess I am the exception.

it came highly praised. just not the right flow for me. everything took too long and was too weird. I know some people like the foo foo performance art that is shown here but ... she's a ballet mistress says it all. it is nice to see the infrastructure in other societies. I could have also used some sub-titles for the song, too. also, isn't hable con ella talk with her not talk to her (just filling in the lines to pass the review requirement) OK more. each scene was long and involved things that I would say are uninterestingly odd. especially dance kind of things. not the dancing with the stars kind of things, but the DANCE kind of things and took time precious time slow time slow slow

Pedro Almodóvar follows his international success All About My Mother with an offbeat drama that explores the friendship of two men brought together under unusual but strangely similar circumstances. Benigno (Javier Camára) is a male nurse whose apartment overlooks a dance studio run by Katerina (Geraldine Chaplin); he often sits on his balcony and watches one of Katerina's students, Alicia (Leonor Watling), and he finds himself becoming infatuated with her. When Alicia is severely injured in an auto accident that leaves her in a coma, Benigno discovers she has been admitted to the hospital where he works, and he spends his days caring for a woman he now deeply loves but has barely met. Marco (Darío Grandinetti) is a journalist who was assigned to interview Lydia (Rosario Flores), a well-known female bullfighter whose on-the-rocks romance with another toreador, "El Niño de Valencia" (Adolfo Fernández), has made her the focus of the tabloid press. During Marco's interview with Lydia, he goes out of his way to treat her kindly, and she appears to return his attention. During the bullfight which follows, Lydia is gored by the bull, and is now in a coma; Marco is certain his interview broke her steely concentration, and he spends most of his days at the hospital, convinced her injuries are his fault. Alicia and Lydia are both housed in the same ward of the same hospital, and in time Benigno and Marco become close friends, bonding in their shared devotion to women who cannot return their affection.