After the death of her beloved teenage son in an accident, Manuela( Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for Barcelona to cope with her grief, hook up with old friends, and- just maybe- contact the long-estranged father the boy never knew. As she gradually regains the will to live through her involvement with the lives of others ( including her son’s favourite stage diva, played by Marisa Paredes), director Pedro Almodovar piles on the coincidences, contrivances and twists so that the film succeeds best as a beautifully crafted, semi-ironic melodrama. Though the film has a fair share of camp humour, it’s the formal and emotional sophistication that really impresses: like Live Flesh, it displays a depth and maturity lacking in Almodovar’s earlier work.