All About My Mother review

The latest film from Almodovar is in his tradition of challenging, emotional and highly entertaining

audio transcript

This film is a rare top quality jewel – it’s both a good film technically and artistically and also a good night out. Sometimes on Radio Quality you’ll find that my film reviews don’t always appear before, or even on the first day of a films release. This is because I like to see a film at the cinema. It’s the only way that I feel I can give you an honest review. A videotape, for me, isn’t good enough. So, if I miss the press screening you have to wait until the film is released to get my opinion. And I’ll tell you why. It’s because of films like ‘All About My Mother’. This is truly a cinematic event. Almodovar knows how to use the big screen. How to excite you, how to appeal to the eyes in a way that only those who have mastered cinema can do. But apart from the feast of art cinema he also tells a real story. An unusual story; although it traces the usual themes of love, death, emotion and sexuality it distils the elements into a concentrated form with an effect like a double-vodka taken down in one mouthful. The quality of the acting is impeccable, the story and thematic continuity are strong and, if the ending is a little weaker than the rest of the film, at least it’s a happy one. The other highly satisfying thing about this film is that certain nagging doubts that you might hold about the incompleteness of the stories and the motives of some of the characters are all nicely resolved by the time the film is finished. And in cinema these days it’s rare that anyone manages even that simple task. So I’m not worried that this review came up a little late, because there’s no doubt that people are going to be watching this film for many years to come. And, if they want an endorsement for it. I’m going along with the judges at the Cannes Film Festival and giving Almodovar ten out of ten.