He is now 68 years old, but in recent years Pedro Almodovar hasn’t been making films like an old master.
His astonishing “The Skin I Live In” (2011) blended identity politics with “Frankenstein” and “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” in a mix that apparently disturbed even his ardent fans (I think it may be one of his greatest films), and “I’m So Excited” (2013) was either too silly or not silly enough in its embrace of zany comedy.
But then who wants Almodovar, once the bad boy of international cinema, to behave like an old master?
Like it or not, “Julieta” has an unmistakably masterly touch. This is a controlled, sure-handed drama, made so that every scene is in place. The acting is uniformly excellent, and the production design is impeccable.
Almodovar’s use of color is wonderful to watch, expressive in such a way he might be making a Technicolor Hollywood melodrama in the 1950s. I wonder if this mastery itself could explain why the movie, which is strong in many ways, also feels just a bit vacuum-sealed.
The gorgeous opening shot sets the tone: We stare at the sensuous waving of deep-red drapes, their folds leaving no doubt that this will be a female-centric movie. They’re not drapes, it turns out, but a kaftan worn by our protagonist and title character (played in the present day scenes by Emma Suarez), who is preparing to move away from Madrid.
But a chance encounter with her daughter’s childhood friend sets Julieta on a different course, and sets the movie on a series of long flashbacks to her younger years. In the past, Julieta (Adriana Ugarte) experiences a series of events that seem to have left her with long-simmering feelings of guilt.
The movie is full of letters that carry great importance, a reminder of how uncinematic email is. There are also chance encounters and accidents that leave a mark.
One of the earliest of these is when young Julieta rebuffs the interest — innocent? creepy? — of an older man during a train ride. A few minutes later, he is dead, apparently by suicide, during which time Julieta has met Xoan (Daniel Grao), who will occupy a crucial role in her life.
A different letter later brings Julieta to his home by the sea, where Almodovar indulges in some pleasantly sinister memories of Hitchcock’s “Rebecca,” especially given the recent death of Xoan’s dead wife and the stern presence of a hatchet-faced housekeeper (Almodovar regular Rossy de Palma), who announces, when Julieta arrives, “I’m in charge of the house.” You get the feeling she’s not talking about keeping the place clean.
If some of the plot turns invoke Hitchcock, it’s more the Hitchcock of difficult pictures like “Marnie” than the master’s fun thrillers. Almodovar also pays homage to the glossy, color-soaked 1950s dramas directed by Douglas Sirk, in the film’s very elegant look and roundabout emotions. Each shot is a formal arrangement of color and composition — actually each shot is practically a floral arrangement, given how pretty it all looks.
At the heart of all this is a mystery that Almodovar chooses not to fill in: Why did Julieta become estranged from her daughter (Blanca Pares) when the latter was a young woman? This is where Almodovar strays from Hitchcock and Sirk; he doesn’t answer all the questions posed by the plot.
This leads to a bold ending that refers again to letters sent but seems to withhold a final resolution. I think Almodovar is right to leave it at that, as the main business of telling the story has ended anyway; anything more would be a Hallmark card.
“Julieta” may be a minor entry in the director’s work, but it is finely-wrought, like a novella. Perhaps it is no surprise that Almodovar’s script is drawn from three short stories by Alice Munro, the Nobel Prize-winning Canadian author. One does not usually ponder the similarities between Spanish and Canadian cultures, but there you have it — the language of tangled family dynamics and quiet guilt is truly universal.
“Julieta” (3 stars)
Not one of director Pedro Almodovar’s top-tier films, but a drama made with complete mastery nonetheless. A middle-aged woman (Emma Suarez) finds herself sifting through the past as she wonders why her daughter has been estranged for so long. In Spanish, with English subtitles.
Rating: R, for nudity, subject matter
Showing: Guild 45th
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