Mysteriously Oscar-nominated as Best Foreign Film, this much over-praised movie is an innocuous, if foul-mouthed comedy that looks like a stage adaptation. Fairly tedious for most of its exposition, it does come together a bit (like its characters) at the end. Carmen Maura is a lively and interesting leading lady, and there are one or two amusing, if irreverent touches, such as the soap powder ad on TV in which a murderer's mother shows pride in getting the bloodstains out of his clothes. Fashionable Spanish director Pedro Almódovar sees to it that doors open and close at the requisite moments in the best farcical traditions. But an Oscar nomination? That's a bigger laugh than anything on display here.


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