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Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: One failing in the film is how boring it is to watch Cruz pretend to be a bad actress. The comic movie within a movie, which borrows from Women on the Verge, isn't funny. Read more
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Almodovar could've played it entirely for laughs, with a flick of his wrist and a tonal adjustment. It's best he didn't, though. The movie putters near the end, but it's a film lover's delight. Read more
A.O. Scott, New York Times: Leaves the viewer in a contradictory state, a mixture of devastation and euphoria, amusement and dismay that deserves its own clinical designation. Read more
David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Pedro Almodovar's Broken Embraces is a lush, deeply romantic noir dense with nods to films past, yet it plays as if it sprung fully formed from the director's unconscious. Read more
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Mr. Almodovar's love of movies informs every frame of this beautiful film. When Harry's fingers explore the dotted landscape of a Braille script, they bespeak the writer's unbroken embrace of language and drama. Read more
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: All of the actors do good work, but as is often the case in Almodovar films, the women own the movie. Read more
Keith Phipps, AV Club: Broken Embraces welds Douglas Sirk melodrama to the most gracefully unsettling elements of Alfred Hitchcock, wrapping both in the stylish, hushed elegance that's become Almodovar's trademark since his mid-'90s reinvention. Read more
Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: The story is twisted and complex, yet it emerges as sleek and unfussy. The characters' actions are grandly melodramatic, but the movie is close and intimate. Read more
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's both ridiculous and ridiculously romantic, which is an apt description of a work shaped like a heart and structured like a pretzel. Read more
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This melancholy romance is the first Almodovar feature I've ever really liked, an expertly fashioned melodrama that steers mercifully clear of his usual puckishness and star-mongering. Read more
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: It all adds up to an entertaining mash of suspense and melodrama. Read more
Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: As long as Almodovar keeps investing such thought and energy in his work, he can play with whatever themes he desires. Read more
Tom Long, Detroit News: While it may not be Almodovar's greatest work, it still stands well above most other films in terms of intrigue, intelligence and innovation. Read more
Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: A vibrant, mature love letter to the making of movies, the meaning of movies, and the dark-eyed muse Penelope Cruz... Read more
Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The writer-director is up to his old tricks, creating an onion of an experience -- a movie within a movie within a movie, irony in each layer, poignancy that stings and whimsy that bites. Read more
Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Seems a touch too long, too airless, and too content with its own contrivances to stir the heart. Read more
Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: There is the beloved and the lover. The first moves in shining beauty, and the second envies every ray of light that has the gift of kissing her. This is how it is in obsessions. It's how it is in the movies, too. Read more
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Pedro Almodovar's latest is perfectly titled: it's a big, swoony kiss that doesn't quite connect with the passion he intends. But fans of the Spanish auteur--or his muse, Penelope Cruz--will find plenty to love. Read more
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Penelope Cruz is a treat for the eyes, and so is her latest film, Pedro Almodovar's sizzlingly sexy film noir Broken Embraces, a love letter to the magical power of movies to mend broken hearts. Read more
Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer: If you somehow weren't already sold on the ridiculous gorgeousness of Penelope Cruz, this should do the trick. Read more
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Broken Embraces is a voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. Read more
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Read more
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Cruz doesn't coast on her beauty in Broken Embraces, and she has the kind of role that can be difficult to flesh out. Read more
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Pedro Almodovar's latest movie is positively drunk in its desire for handsome actors and beautiful actresses, gorgeously art-directed sets, suspense, comedy, ironic flashbacks, tragic romance. Read more
Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Stylish and sly, an engaging exercise that gives us less than meets the eye. Read more
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: While Cruz acquits herself capably, this is, necessarily, an exercise in virtuosic superficiality. Read more
Nick Funnell, Time Out: The sense is of an ageing director taking stock: exploring his cinematic roots, imagining his future and working through it all to emerge counting his blessings at the end. Read more
Dave Calhoun, Time Out: While some of Almodovar's films are out-and-out heartbreakers - perfect storms of melodrama, storytelling and extreme living - this is a more cerebral, self-reflective and noir-ish affair. Read more
Claudia Puig, USA Today: While it doesn't pack the emotional heft of director Pedro Almodvar's most moving films, such as Volver, it is stylish and arresting, with powerful performances and a compelling, if at times contrived, story. Read more
Jonathan Holland, Variety: Held together by the extraordinary force of Almodovar's cinematic personality. Read more
Rob Nelson, Village Voice: Equal parts comic melodrama and film noir, and twice as fun as it ought to be, Broken Embraces boasts more bifurcations than any two Hitchcock classics. Read more
Jake Coyle, Associated Press: There's not another filmmaker working today (or perhaps ever) who believes so strongly in the extremes of melodrama. Read more