High Heels

With their bright colors and arresting set decoration, movies by Spain's Pedro Almódovar, such as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), show up to terrific advantage on the video screen. But in High Heels, his disingenuous, jokey variation on Ingmar Bergman's Autumn Sonata, the welcome has worn as the tale precariously treads a thin line between pathos and farce. In it a self-centered, high-strung actress (Marisa Paredes) returns to Madrid after many years only to discover that her neglected daughter (Victoria Abril) has married her former lover, who is then murdered. If only Almodovar could commit to one real emotion. Instead, he's almost obsessed with being irreverent and hip, and it has become a tired old style. The story of abandonment is rich and affecting, yet ultimately it's about little more than decor. Pedro, it appears, needs to get back into flats. C-