Week 3: Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)

Antonio Banderas returns yet again. This time as Ricky, recently released from a mental institution and ready for love. His target is Marina (played by Victoria Abril). Marina is a former porn star and recovering drug addict now cast in a horror film that oddly mirrors her soon-to-be predicament with Ricky. Almodóvar has never shied away from metacinema in his movies. In the films reviewed so far, it has a subtle presence within the story. In Law of Desire, Pablo is a director. In Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Pepa is an actress. Yet while these details are easily dismissed as irrelevant, Marina’s horror movie and the on-set occurrences in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! are a little too obtrusive. The metacinematic aspects end up being distracting and there’s something a little off with the film as a whole.

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a film that is unsure of what it wants to be. As such, it’s one of Almodóvar’s weaker films. It’s mildly funny, but it’s not a comedy like Women. It consequently loiters on the border between horror and romance, ultimately picking a genre in what feels like a cop-out ending.

We meet Ricky, whose interest in Marina is so ambiguous that we are unsure as to whether or not it’s an obsession or true love. Either way, he ends up kidnapping her. In addition to the kidnapping, we are constantly reminded of Ricky’s mental instabilities. While on the set of Marina’s film, Ricky disguises himself with the most conspicuous wig that one could use in such a situation. When he finally encounters Marina on-set, he tries to impress her by performing a handstand. Taking insanity into account, obsession and true love are essentially one and the same.

The next ambiguity is the aforementioned genre issue. We have the film’s music, scored by the legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone. The music of Almodóvar’s earlier films was rather unremarkable. But with Morricone at the helm, the music has a very noticeable presence (again, obtrusive). The music itself is sultry, with lurid horns and romantic swells—which is misleading because the situation in which we hear the music is decidedly unromantic. Marina will be and has been kidnapped, only after being violently subdued and tied up by Ricky.

The kidnapping is horrific, but there are romantic undertones. The film is unsure of itself because Almodóvar wants it that way. The ambiguity seems purposeful, and the metacinematic elements indicate as much because the film-within-the-film can’t decide if it’s horror or romance either.

The metacinema may show intent, but I don’t think it necessarily excuses Almodóvar for the ambiguity. Just because he meant to do it doesn’t make it any better than if he did it accidentally. It is just as disappointing and just as perplexing as the film’s all-too literal climax of what may (not) be the result Stockholm syndrome.


Next week: High Heels (1991)