DVD: Broken Embraces, For retail & rental (20th Century Fox)

A love letter to all aspects of movie-making, Pedro Almodovar's latest is also a heightened, noirish melodrama revolving around an affair between a director (Lluis Homar) and the star of his new film (Penélope Cruz), who also happens to be the mistress of that film's producer.

Unfortunately, there's a cluttered prologue and a rambling, anti-climactic coda, but the central tale is a witty homage to Alfred Hitchcock and Douglas Sirk, as well as being sexy, gripping and moving in its own right

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