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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
All About My Mother
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Universal acclaim
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 15 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign
Written by: Pedro Almodóvar
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 19, 1999
DVD: July 11, 2000
Running Time: 101 minutes, Color
Origin: Spain / France
Summary
RATING: R for sexuality including strong sexual dialogue, language, and some drug content.
Starring Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Peña, Antonia San Juan, Penélope Cruz, Rosa Maria Sardà, Fernando Fernán Gómez, and Toni Cantó
This is the story of a mother (Roth) recovering from the death of her teenage son. She travels to Barcelona to find her son's father and revisits many places of her youth.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Bad Education High Heels Live Flesh Talk to Her The Flower of My Secret Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! Volver Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site Pedro Almodovar's Official Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Almodovar is adept at weaving together strands you'd never guess would match.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Brimming with bittersweet wit and emotion and built with deceptively fluent craft.
New York Post Lou Lumenick
The year's best foreign-language movie an absolute must-see.
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Almodóvar's masterwork, is a spectacular synthesis of everything that has always interested him -- proud women, lovely boys, beautiful drag queens, grand movie stars, gorgeous frocks, wild wallpaper .
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
This is humanism in drag: Almodovar's passionate redefinition of family values.
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A surprisingly satisfying combination of bawdy sexual humor, genuine emotion and a plot with mechanics so excessive that Almodóvar himself calls it "a screwball drama."
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
As straightforward and plot-driven as any movie about life imitating art imitating life could possibly be.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Just about everyone worth knowing in All About My Mother is female in spirit, which is to say they're all sexy, impossible, powerfully durable souls, quarrelsome and loyal, inventive at navigating the tragedies.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Pedro Almodovar's transfixing tragicomedy -- the best foreign movie of the year -- is also the best showcase for actresses in ages.
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
So intrinsically rich that it doesn't need any metaphors.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Janet Maslin
It weaves life and art into a rich tapestry of love, loss and compassion.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
The most mature and satisfying work in a glittering, consistently surprising career.
Film.com Peter Brunette
Funny and wise, lively and contemplative, intriguingly postmodern and powerfully moving, all at the same time. It's not to be missed.
Read Full Review >Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard
The most heartfelt tribute to women -- specifically, actresses -- he's (Almodovar) ever made.
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
It's filled with marvelous performances, fabulous wit, and some dizzying images.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
A tender genuflection to the women's energies that keep that spinning world from keeling over.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Marc Caro
Generous in spirit and always engaging as it demonstrates that no matter how difficult life may become, there's no excuse for being drab.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The characters have a weight and reality, as if Almodovar has finally taken pity on them--has seen that although their plights may seem ludicrous, they're real enough to hurt. These are people who stand outside conventional life and its rules, and yet affirm them.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Almodovar still populates his work with characters you'll see nowhere else in movies.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Some will find the movie's sexual antics too explicit and unconventional for comfort.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
This is more than a movie: It's Almodovar's design for living.
San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris
Almodovar imbues his Harlequin-novel-meets-Marvel-comic-book melodramas with something more than a wink and a smile, and it's beguiling.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak
As dark as a Greek tragedy yet it has a vibrance and joie de vivre that can't be contained by grief.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
It's enough to make your head spin, but Almodovar, whose mastery of the medium has never been more assured, gives you plenty to think about, ultimately grounding the dizzy whirl of his idiosyncratic fictional world in a story that feels not just true but universal.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
For me it felt like a good many weeks at a politically correct summer camp, though the talented actors--including Cecilia Roth, Eloy Azorin, Marisa Paredes, Toni Canto, Antonia San Juan, and Penelope Cruz--certainly seem to enjoy the taste of the characters they're playing.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
Even though the film is full of laughs, the jokes hover on the edge of the abyss: This is a world in which lurid colors and extravagant gestures are means of filling the void.
Read Full Review >Variety Jonathan Holland
An emotionally satisfying and brilliantly played take on the ups and (mostly) downs of a group of less-than-typical female friends.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Bill Gallo
The unfettered comedy of life bubbling up from the Spanish unconscious continues to be proudly liberationist, gloriously extreme, and achingly human.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Ann Hornaday
Almodovar has created an ecstatic homage to the women who have inspired him all his life.
San Francisco Chronicle Bob Graham
No one else makes movies like this Spanish director.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Don Kaye
Emerges as a thoughtful reflection on the many roles women must play throughout their lives.
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Classic melodrama given a thoroughly modern, utterly Almodovarian face-lift.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Mothers definitely get their due here: Birth mothers, adoptive mothers and mothers-to-be - with the only men in sight (save for one young fatality and one old eccentric) being those who wear flashy makeup and sport breasts
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The work of a talented filmmaker coasting on his own fumes.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.6 (out of 10) based on 15 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Luis G. gave it a10:
The first Almodovar film I saw was Todo Sobre Mi Madre. I was just 16 but I was able to appreciate it. It is insightful, funny, brave, and at most, the best of spanish cinema. The director is a genious. Don't miss Talk to Her either, it is even more original and more poignant.
Max B. gave it a10:
Honest bittersweet portrayal of life’s experiences from an assertive woman’s perspective. Love, loss and friendship. Beautiful and life affirming.
Danielle L. gave it a9:
Brilliantly moving.
Danielle L. gave it a9:
Brilliantly moving
Craig B. gave it a 10:
Smart dialogue, interesting characters, innovative screenplay...a perfect movie!
Yoon C. gave it a 9:
A genuinely warm movie from Almodovar, it has at its center a woman who stands between two vastly different lives; her healthy well-adjusted young son who wants to know more about his family roots and her former husband whose life is an endless series of running away from relationships. This father who turns out to be a transvestite is one of Almodovar's great creations: both ridiculous, even laughable yet in his peculiar, even sublime, way beautiful; someone charming enough to exploit and win the forgiveness of everyone. A warm cozy story wrapped within inspired perversity or vice versa. Not to be missed.
Nick gave it a 10:
I'm moved. almodovar's characters are ALIVE. believe me!
