Almodóvar's movie worlds have always been interesting to inhabit and his first English language feature is no exception to that in that all parts of the art world are beautifully present and presented: Literature is read (Joyce) , books are never far away anyhow, architecture, furniture, paintings, decoration, all refer to an intellectually challenging world where every sophisticated being in this world would eagerly like to be part of.
However, despite this constant referencing to works of art, the movie feels empty and hollow, intellectually and emotionally not that engaging. The music by Iglesias is beautiful, opening credits are quintessential Almodóvar and Moore and Swinton are two of the greatest actresses alive, but the script is too simple to take this beyond a merely simply staged play. For example, Swinton is a former war correspondent but this never adds an interesting touch to the movie. The same for Moore who is a writer, but almost nothing is done with that element here. Another interesting part of the story is where Swinton seems to manipulate Moore in her guilt and goodheartedness, but it is also too underdeveloped.
Almodóvar's direction of both Moore and Swinton is overall too absent, so it is difficult to see what he wants from them. (See how Fincher in Swinton's small role in last year's The Killer makes her perfecly fitting the movie, with great attention to body movement and diction). Here characters and stories from the past pop up and go, yes just like in real life, but that doesn't make compelling viewing. Turturro (Almodóvar?) is especially helpless in this movie with not only uninteresting lines but a character with a simplistic political message and world view.
This is a movie where the parts all do their work relatively nice, but the sum of it all is disappointing, and the director is unfortunately to blame for that. In Dolor and gloria he bravely put his own pain to the forefront, but like Woody Allen his big inspiration seems to be over and his movies are mere copies and abstractions of previous ideas. The movie references Bergman's Persona, but is a shadow of this work of art. (Also the 1 minute trailer contains the whole movie.)
A last note: That this won the Golden Lion in Venice this year is not only an indication of how weak the 2024 edition of the festival was, but as usual also a sum of the composition of the jury this time presided by Huppert: first prize to a movie about a woman who wants to be euthanized, second prize about a woman torn apart by war, love and her community, and the third price about a woman fighting for abortion. Maybe it is an idea to let filmmakers be presidents of the jury instead of actors and actresses so the best film would have won the biggest prize (The Brutalist).
