After the crazy farces and before successfully blending emotion with
comedy in All About My Mother, Almodóvar made this
surprisingly straight drama. Leo (Paredes) has a secret career as
"Amanada Gris", writer of Mills and Boon-style fluff. When
her marriage starts to crumble, she sees drink as the only answer and
turns her typewriter to darker stuff, but eventually finds her way
through. Paredes excels, and the rest of the cast (including the
flamenco star Joaquín Cortés) support well, but
there's just not really enough body in the film to sustain it.
