Pain and Glory

A curiously uninvolving effort from Pedro Almodovar, Pain and Glory follows aging filmmaker Salvador Mallo (Antonio Banderas) as he prepares for an anniversary screening of his most famous movie while also reflecting on his life and loves. Director Almodovar delivers an exceedingly deliberate endeavor that remains dramatically inert for the duration of its periodically interminable running time, as the filmmaker proves entirely unable to draw the viewer into either of the picture’s two storylines – which is disappointing, to say the least, given that Almodovar has elicited a top-tier performance from star Banderas. The erratic narrative is compounded by an ongoing inclusion of momentum-killing asides and segues (eg a lengthy monologue by a periphery character), and it does become increasingly impossible to shake the feeling that the whole thing just feels so inconsequential and irrelevant – with the admittedly clever conclusion ultimately unable to reverse Pain and Glory’s firmly-established status as a palpable misfire.

** out of ****