Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
Two unmarried women who have become pregnant by accident and are about to give birth meet in a hospital room: Janis, in her late-thirties, unrepentant and happy; Ana, a teenager, remorseful and frightened.
Almodóvar delivers another emotionally rich melodrama anchored by Penélope Cruz's career-best performance and a solid supporting turn from Milena Smit. The switched-at-birth premise is handled with genuine emotional weight and interweaves Spain's unresolved Civil War memory in a thematically ambitious way, though the plot mechanics can feel contrived and the dual-strand narrative doesn't always cohere seamlessly. Cinematography is characteristically vivid with Almodóvar's signature bold palette and tight interior framings, competent but not strikingly inventive. The film sits comfortably within Almodóvar's established melodramatic register—distinctive in execution but not a departure from his well-worn territory. The ending resolves both the personal and political threads with sincerity if not surprise.