Almodóvar is no doubt the hottest director in Europe and this film is one of his best of all time. The strength of women play the basis of this movie, that's why it works so well. Esteban (Eloy Azorín) is an aspiring writer who is cherished by his mother Manuela (Cecilia Roth). Esteban gets tragically killed in an accident while running to get an autograph from a theater star, Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes). Before he died, Esteban had always wanted to know who his father was and Manuela feels completely guilty for not having told him. She visits Barcelona in search of his father now a post-op transsexual, Lola (Toni Cantó). Along the way, she builds strength in meeting sister Rosa (Penélope Cruz), the hilarious Nina (Candela Peña) who is comfortable enough to make jokes about her pre-op status, Huma herself and Rosa's mother (Rosa Maria Sardà). The humor is very witty, so Almodóvar did a great job with the screenplay for this film.

-- David Hua, QCinema

Pedro Almodóvar, the writer-director of All About My Mother, has always thrived on tweaking "normalcy," much like Woody Allen meeting John Waters with a good dose of Spanish seasoning and a dash of Buñuel. Early on, for his uproarious endeavors, he was considered a queer, unpredictable rebel who hung around with drag queens and made underground movies. Consequently, he wasn't allowed into the league of internationally respected A-list directors until his 1988 hit Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown broke down the barriers.

Yes, before that Almodóvar was just a gay cult idol who addressed gender issues with a delicious absurdity, a fine example being 1984's What Have I Done to Deserve This? Here an overworked and impoverished mom gives one of her sons to a pederast dentist so he can lead a better life. Then she kills her husband with a piece of meat and serves the weapon for dinner. There goes the evidence.

But after Almodóvar was invited to the Establishment Dais, he faltered creatively. Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990) was a callous comedy about a fan who kidnaps his beautiful idol, tethers her to his bed and hovers over her when she urinates in the toilet. Of course, she eventually falls in love with her victimizer. What would have been amusing if the sexes of the characters had been reversed comes off here as merely misogynistic and sloppy.

Another misstep was Kika (1993) which featured what was supposed to be a hilarious 20-minute rape. It was far from amusing. As for High Heels (1991) and The Flower of My Secret, they were at best forgettable features, each hosting only two or three of the amusing touches of the ridiculous that we always expect from Pedro.

Happily, with 1998's accomplished Live Flesh, a torrid tale of lust and betrayal, Almodóvar found his way again.

And now arrives All About My Mother, a marvelously impassioned and caring journey into what it means to be a woman today (having once had a penis won't exclude you) and what it means to be a family. It's also a paean to those Hollywood melodramas starring Bette Davis plus Tennessee Williams and his Streetcar-esque theatrics, so have your hankies ready to absorb.

The film begins with nurse named Manuela (played by a transcendent Cecilia Roth) who loses her only son Esteban, a handsome 17-year-old, on a rainy night in Madrid. Unable to cope, she heads for the safety of her past in Barcelona. This is where she had lived with Esteban's father and a smattering of friends. The first old pal she runs into is the campy drag queen prostitute Agrado (San Juan), who now boasts a set of real breasts of which she's extremely proud. The two reunite as if 17 years haven't passed since they last communicated. Then, against Manuela's will, two other gals invade her treasured isolation, quickly enlarging her circle of chums: a lovely young nun afflicted with AIDS and a famous lesbian stage actress.

Each of these characters will experience a tragedy of sorts and each will survive and grow stronger as apparently Almodóvar has, winning a Best Director nod at Cannes this year for All About My Mother. This is an inspired and mature effort that shouts: "A Master at work!"

--Brandon Judell, PlanetOut 

Source : Obtained from QCinema.com & PlanetOut.com