SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

jangu This movie starts out in a very interesting fashion when the story about the married man, his wife and his male lover (hunky Bardem in a good performance) starts to unravel. The husband is devoted to his little family (wife and one son), but also need the love and affection from his male lover who has a lot of the qualities he seems to be missing (open, free-minded and spontaneous). The wife, however (an excellent Adriana Gil), starts to be suspicious about strange phone-calls and her husbands generally absent-minded behavior. Naturally she thinks that he has a mistress, but gradually the truth dawns on her...Apart from that interesting (but somewhat banal) setup, the viewer can also enjoy the fact that it's a high-budget product with nice locations, a sumptuous score and a title sequence that could rival the ones done for Bond-movies in technical brilliance. And for those who enjoy such things (I do), you also get some surprisingly hot gay love-making between the two men even though there is no full-frontal nudity.BUT somewhere along the way the story starts to tread water and the erratic behavior of the husband begins to get on your nerves. Basically he wants to have his cake and eat it and expect everyone else to understand HIM even though he never tries very hard to understand either his wife or his lover, who both love him dearly and want him for themselves. In a number of very typical Spanish scenes with two parts arguing (husband/wife, husband/lover), the husband whines about his situation and very soon all patience and sympathy for him has reached zero level!So when the end finally comes, you almost breathe a sigh of relief that the wife and lover now can go on with their lives and be happy because they are truly nice people at the core and don't deserve all the aggravation the husband has caused them. So, all in all, do take a look and enjoy this high-gloss gay melodrama, it is certainly easy on the eyes and entertaining, but don't expect to be deeply moved.

rocks15 I have to see this a second time...the subtitles made is tough to follow especially toward the end. it's powerful when you are a married man with a male lover...let me assure you of that. How many of us find ourselves in that situation - hoping for a solution that makes every one happy....how can we live happily overate..and love those important to us? At the very least, the movie serves as a catalyst for discussion with one's therapist. that's sad to say but if there are 1000 such situations in the world, i suspect that there are 10,000. Many thanks for offering this up even with the subtitles. and if someone has a solution or resolution other than a fantasy of the death of the lost soul, please post your thought. There are many ways to die beside in a motorcycle accident. Those in these situations die many times and live for another day but no solution....my imagination has the wife and lover becoming the best of friends for the future to recall their true love. who knows maybe they get married and have sex. believe me life is stranger than fiction but not hard to accept that he loved them both and was lost in love. i think they forgave him....but could not understand him. nor did he.

arizona-philm-phan ****(Torn between the life society forces one to live and the life one needs live...........)How utterly devastating for lead character, Alberto, as for any of us, to face the realization that everything he's done in life (carrying on a family work tradition, courting and marrying, parenting) is NOT who he really is. Elena's discovery of his activities forces this realization on him and places him in a situation with which he can not cope. We so clearly see this realization in his final return to their home (too late for his son's birthday party and after yet another session of love-making and sexual intercourse with Diego) where he is greeted by Elena's "how-could-you / final straw" stare. It's a look he knows he deserves, yet one to which Alberto can only respond by mutely sinking into a chair, the complete despair on his face so plainly telling us he's aware it's finally over between them. It's a grief stricken expression that says: I can't do this any more.He tells us in his final film moments that he has never been allowed to truly be who he's wanted ("I've been lying since I was a kid / hated those with me in school / hated my job"). A third generation (grandfather, father before him) airport operations worker, a husband / father......all roles 'expected' of him, all roles in which he'd truly tried to give his best. But, in the end, all that trying wasn't enough. Nor was finding "the love of his life" (Javier Bardem's Diego) to be enough, although he'd thought....hoped....it would be. Recall that, in the afterglow of their sexual intercourse, Alberto looks to Diego, lying at this side, and says: "I think this was the best time I've had in my whole life." Then in a later scene, following intercourse: "I love you, Diego. I will for a long time." Can there be any doubt who was the one for him?So, it isn't at all that his love for Elena is greater, it's that his commitment to their life had been pushed to become so strong (expectations......expectations, meeting them can tear you apart). And at the near conclusion of everything, when Diego says: "you have to start over......," you can plainly see the realization in Jordi Molla's oh-so-expressive eyes and face (this man is so beautiful), that he's just at a complete and total loss for knowing how to keep and love a family, as he's been strictly raised to do, and at the same time have the relationship he must have with Diego, the love of his life. Yes, it is his conflict over this very love which will bring everything crashing down, and his non-solution will be to run, run from it all. Doing so will result in tragedy.FINAL RESTATEMENT: In the end, then, we can see that we have been given the study of a man raised and pushed into being something he isn't. It's the story of oh, so many out there. Some are able to break out of the mold, others not---the strength of commitments (to spouse, to children, family) being too great. Or perhaps that's the excuse used for staying within the mold. But in the hearts and minds of those who do stay, the longings, those yearnings for "the other" are there.......always there.......and they hurt. Alberto was able to break from the mold, but only to a point. And in the end, trying to live in both worlds tore him apart emotionally. This film shows you the results.PS---Many aspects of this Spanish film presage ones in America's later released "Brokeback Mountain" (2005). Was Ennis's conflict any more soul-wrenching than Alberto's? True, Ennis is much the simpler man, but over and above that, when it comes to the love of your life, does it really matter where in this world you find that love (out-of-the-way ranch town or bustling city.......high-rise urban areas or soaring mountains)? ****

denger76178 This movie has many elements going for it, an outstanding performance by Joidi Molla (who co-starred in BLOW as Deigo) gives a more than OSCAR worthy performance. This alone is worth seeing this movie. It explores the inner turmoil of Alberto, a married man with a son, who falls in love with a man (Javier Bardem). The affair is hidden and Alberto is ashamed of what he has become, leading a double life. I will stop here, I hate reading about what happens in movies! The overall acting is very good. I highly recommend this movie.