Rating: 
Summary: WONDERFUL PERFORMANCES FOR A TWISTED PLOT.
Review: Another excellent masterpiece by the one an only Almodovar, this film is quite darker than his previous movies. However, the twisted plot is there as always, as well as the unexpected ending and wonderful acting. Cecilia Roth does a great performance as the dramatic Manuela, who loses her only son to a car accident while chasing after the theater star "Huma Rojo", played by Marisa Paredes, whose glamour and beauty make her ideal for this role. However, the real star is Antonia San Juan, who literally steals the show whenever she is on screen. Her character lightens up the somewhat sad story with her witty remarks and "perverse" naivete. Also Penelope Cruz makes a great performance of "Rosa", a nun who gets pregnant by another prostitute who happens to also be the father of Manuela's child. However, the fact of her wanting to travel to El Salvador to help in the war is quite inaccurate, as the war in that country has been over for ten years now, unless the story was supposed to take place in the 80's but who knows, they never clarify that. Overall, it's a great movie and a "must see", not suitable for the closed minded, though.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This is an amazing film that gets better every time I see it. The first time I saw it was in Spain, without English subtitles. I figured I had probably missed a significant part of the movie because my spanish is far from perfect, so I rented it as soon as I got back home to America. I've seen it again, and again, and it never gets old. The reason might be that the concept is so original. Beware all people who like only like safe, conventional American movies, this film is not for you. It's plot centers around homosexuals, transvestites, a pregnant nun, a drug-addicted actress, and just about anyone you might expect to see on Jerry Springer. Any one without a VERY open mind might be frightened, worried, "weirded out" etc. by this movie. Nevertheless, despite it's odd cast of characters the movie is really about concepts that are universal. Funny, shocking, dramatic, disturbing, powerful, this movie hits all the bases. You'll want to read Bodas de Sangre (Blood Weddings), a Street Car Named Desire, and watch All About Eve, just to get more of of thisspectacular movie. Almodovar is a genius, the cinematography is great, the plot amazing, what can I say, I love this movie.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: Probably my favourite film of all time!
Almodovar does it every time without fail.
He creates stories using characters that would be unsympathetically portrayed by other directors, yet he creates empathy within you even for the most screwed up them.
In this story, dealing with the love a mother has for her son, and her tragic loss when he dies, you meet prostitutes, transsexuals, transvestites and nuns with HIV!
Sounds ridiculous, but the director is a genius.
It's worth noting that this film won an Oscar for Best International Movie.
A truly moving, emotional, funny and thought provoking story, with colourful characters and told with genuine warmth.
I defy anyone not to be moved...
Rating: 
Summary: The Struggle Between Heartbreak and Hope
Review: Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother contains more pure emotion than anything Hollywood puts out these days. The film follows the turbulent life of Manuela (Cecilia Roth) who tragically loses her teenage son Esteban (Eloy Azorin) after they both attend a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire. Esteban is killed when he is hit by a car while chasing after actress Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes) in the hope of getting her autograph. The loss devestates Manuela. When she recovers from her grief, she sets out to Barcelona to find Esteban's father to tell him of his son's death. Along the way, Manuela comes across old and new friends who help her heal further while also causing her more grief. Almodovar expertly balances the heartbreak and the humor to such a degree that the viewer is never sure whether a tear or a laugh is around the corner. And while the characters in the film are unconventional - transvestite hookers, a pregnant nun, lesbians - the irony is their interactions say as much about family values as any conventional family film out there. All the performances from Roth's grieving mother to Penelope Cruz's ill-fated nun are honest and true. This film is a roller-coaster ride of emotion but in the end you'll be glad that you took the ride.
Rating:
Summary: All About Las Mujeres....
Review: I bought this dvd recently at a discount as a previously viewed item. I've always enjoyed Pedro Almodovar's work, especially my favorite, "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown". I had read and heard lots of good things about "All About My Mother" and after watching it, I wasn't let down. Cecilia Roth is excellent as Manela, a mother her loses her only son, Esteban, to a car accident before her very eyes. Grief stricken she decides to run away from Madrid where she lived and return to Barcelona, the city that she left years ago as a young pregnant woman. Once in Barcelona she meets an old friend called La Agrado, a transsexual prostitute, who in turn introduces her to Rosa, a nun, who becomes a new friend. She also finds work with Huma Rojo (played wonderfully by Marisa Paredes) an actress who is touring the country playing Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's great work, "A Street Car Named Desire". It was this play that she saw with her son the night he was killed, as he was trying to meet Huma Rojo. The story has lots of twists and is always interesting, as you would expect from Almodovar. But it is the relationships between these women that is the real star of this movie. Almodovar explores the depth of friendship and sisterhood between these women but never turns it into a Lifetime Movie. And due must be given to the actresses, in paticular Cecelia Roth, Marisa Paredes and Antonio San Juan. This movie is a great find and I recommend it to all.
Rating: 
Summary: All about What??
Review: The actresses are good. The subject/hidden feeling as explored are also good. However can't the director work out a better, compelling plot line, a reasonable/believable touching story instead of piece together his unconnected dreams??
Rating:
Summary: parents were people long before they ever had you
Review: The title character here --- the man behind the "my" in "All About My Mother" -- actually dies in the beginning of the film, on his 18th birthday, right after he asks his single mother to finally tell him about his father. She never has, and he dies without the knowledge.Greatly aggrieved, she decides to fulfill his wish post-humously. She takes the train from Madrid to Barcelona -- from where she ran away when pregnant and had never returned. It turns out that she used to appear in a theater group's rendition of "A Streetcar Named Desire". She finds the theater that features the same play (in fact, she and her son had seen the same traveling theater group in Madrid the night he died.) She takes a job there and makes friends with the two lesbian stars of the play. She also reconnects with her friends from her past life, althogh not all --- Lola is conspicuously missing, and everyone wonders where she is. Catch Penelope Cruz well-cast in a spectacularly understated role as Sister Rosa, a pregnant nun. She is excellent!
Rating:
Summary: Truth is beyond any preset limits
Review: You must be Spanish today to be able to produce such a film entirely dedicated to the concept of the « son ». The real son who was born, raised and educated by his mother, because of the total absence of the father, because the father is not « presentable » to the son, because teh father is a semi-transexual transvestite, what's more addicted to heroin and infested with AIDS. The film becomes poignant, a lot more than sentimental, compassionate, pathetic or any thing else of the kind, when one mother who has just lost her teenage son from this father meets with a nun who is carrying the not yet born son of this very same father. It could become bleak since the new mother is HIV positive, or even densely black since she dies during delivery, and yet it remains luminous when the father discovers the truth about his first son and then discovers his second son, a few weeks before he, this father, dies. This luminosity is multiplied because an actress who is performing Blanche in « A Streetcar Named Desire », brings into the film all the dense meaning conveyed by this situation and the author of the play. Never the film becomes critical. Never the film hides or distanciates the situation and the professions of some of these newly born « women ». Never the film becomes gross or sickening. It is a master piece on a fundamental and essential problem in our societies, a problem that concerns millions and millions of people, men, women and children alike : gender identity and AIDS. To hide it would be a crime. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Rating:
Summary: Frivolous and Profound.
Review: This may indeed be Pedro Almodovar's peak as a film-maker. Although he has always walked the line between high comedy and sentimental drama, in 'All About My Mother', Almodovar has created an unusual and funny array of characters that are instantly likeable. Almodovar's love of comic confrontation and female fantasy have often brought him derision from various critical quarters. Some critics bemoan his seeming obsessions with kitsch surfaces and camp frivolity. It says something about the power of his film-making when mariginal societal characters such as these make us feel a greater affection and empathy for them than we do for the majority of mid-west suburbanite families that are portrayed on screen. We might seem a bit cynical in the English-speaking world that so many people can become such trusting friends in such a short space of time, but the movie is less about buddies and more about the maternal need that all of these women have to give and receive love. The performances vary from the exceptional Antonia San Juan as a transvestite prostitute to the above average Penelope Cruz as a pregnant nun. It's difficult to imagine Pedro Almodovar making movies in his 70's still rendering the touching and profound from such light-hearted frivolity. But it is something to look forward to.
Rating:
Summary: "I went after my son's heart"
Review: Watching ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER is a strange journey; just when you think it went off on a tangent, it pulls the viewer back in with authentic and convincing emotional portrayals of grief and loss, which ultimately results in a satisfying film. Spanish films, and in particular Pedro Almodovar films, are well crafted and worth searching out in the video store, and ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER doesn't disappoint. This film follows the story of Manuela who loses her beloved son Estaban in a car accident. After his death she realizes that his biggest wish is to know who his father is. Traveling from Madrid to Barcelona Manuela engages on a trip that is both geographical and emotional. She eventually comes to terms with her ex-husband Lola, who is a cross-dresser and drug addict. The story of Lola is deeply sad and unsettling. Equally thought provoking is Penelope Cruz's performance as a nun whose life is turned upside down after being intimate with Lola. There are no quintessential Hollywood happy endings in this film, rather just honest and realistic partings of the characters. Recommended.
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