Monday, July 4, 2011

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.