Not quite the lurid festival of frantic coupling the title suggests,
this melodrama is a Spanish take on a Ruth Rendell mystery. Victor
(Rabal) emerges from prison, having been incarcerated after an
accidental shooting, and re-encounters those involved in the
incident. Almodóvar's trademarks are present: good cop/bad
cop double act; snippets of other films; a Madrid which seems to have
only a few inhabitants, all screwing each other's spouses. It marks a
departure, in that he focuses on the male rather than female
characters; but they're anthropological macho caricatures - or maybe
that's what Pedro really thinks of men.
