Pedro Almodóvar directs Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore and John Turturro in this arthouse drama where a dying woman asks an estranged old friend to be with her as she kills herself.

Almodóvar’s English language debut isn’t his finest hour. The settings are lush and the concept solid. Yet he grabs around at lots of disparate ideas and the experience is anchored by an unusually clunky performance from Swinton. Something is lost in translation here, too many moments feel like notebook musings that could not find a home in another story.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Broken Embraces (2009)