Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

A voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. As it ravished me, I longed for a freeze frame to allow me to savor a shot.

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

Broken Embraces welds Douglas Sirk melodrama to the most gracefully unsettling elements of Alfred Hitchcock, wrapping both in the stylish, hushed elegance that’s become Almodóvar’s trademark since his mid-’90s reinvention.

Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum

Many of the characters go by two different names. So best advice for optimum viewing is, see Broken Embraces...twice.

Portland Oregonian by Shawn Levy

In Almodóvar and Cruz we have a real collaboration of artist and inspiration that only seems to improve and deepen over time.

Salon by Stephanie Zacharek

This really is Cruz's movie: Almodóvar is her North Star -- following his lead, she's always found her surest and most graceful footing as an actress.

New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein

This movie is utterly irresistible.

The New York Times by A.O. Scott

Broken Embraces leaves the viewer in a contradictory state, a mixture of devastation and euphoria, amusement and dismay that deserves its own clinical designation. Call it Almodóvaria, a syndrome from which some of us are more than happy to suffer.

Rolling Stone by Peter Travers

Cruz exudes a sensual aura of mystery that holds you spellbound. And Almodóvar, a true poet of cinema, creates images -- horrifying and healing -- that live inside your head like a waking dream. You want to miss a movie like that? I didn’t think so.

Chicago Tribune by Michael Phillips

The movie putters near the end, but it's a film lover's delight.

New York Post by Lou Lumenick

That still makes Broken Embraces superior to at least 99 percent of the movies released in 2009. Run, don't walk.

Empire by Kim Newman

Gorgeous and seductive, if pitched at Almodóvar fans and perhaps a touch long. Those drawn by Cruz’s divadom will wonder why it takes so long to get to her -- though she is wholly dazzling when it does.

Variety by Jonathan Holland

A restless, rangy and frankly enjoyable genre-juggler that combines melodrama, comedy and more noir-hued darkness than ever before, the picture is held together by the extraordinary force of Almodovar’s cinematic personality.

The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt

This is a pretty minor film from the filmmaker. It feels like more of an exercise in plotting and movie nostalgia than a story about real people.

Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf

Watching the new film is like getting upsettingly full on insubstantial tapas: You would never say no to just one more, but there’s better.

Village Voice

Indeed, three decades into his career as a name-brand fashioner of zesty soapers, Spanish cinema's most beloved export could direct un film de Almodóvar with his eyes shut and still get a rise out of his fans. So who could blame the matador for letting the bull run the show this time?

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

Seems a touch too long, too airless, and too content with its own contrivances to stir the heart.