{"id":828226,"date":"2026-08-28T03:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/828226\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T03:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T03:06:12","slug":"bitter-christmas-review-a-meandering-and-unfocused-affair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/828226\/","title":{"rendered":"Bitter Christmas review: ‘A meandering and unfocused affair’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ra\u00fal (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is a modern-day filmmaker struggling to finish his latest screenplay as he deals with the departure of his assistant M\u00f3nica (Aitana S\u00e1nchez-Gij\u00f3n). Meanwhile, in Ra\u00fal\u2019s 2004-set script, filmmaker Elsa (B\u00e1rbara Lennie) suffers migraines and tries to navigate complicated relationships.<\/p>\n

Pedro Almod\u00f3var has explored his own profession before, in Antonio Banderas\u2019 suffering filmmaker\u00a0of Pain\u00a0And\u00a0Glory<\/a>,\u00a0for example. But\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0a sense of\u00a0intense\u00a0self-examination and even self-flagellation in his new film, as he looks at the tendency of artists to cannibalise the lives of those around them\u00a0\u2014\u00a0to the detriment, perhaps, of\u00a0their personal relationships.<\/p>\n

\"Bitter<\/p>\n

Not that\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0immediately\u00a0clear. We open in 2004 with a typical\u00a0Almod\u00f3varian\u00a0heroine. B\u00e1rbara Lennie\u2019s Elsa is a sometime filmmaker and\u00a0commercials director who is afflicted with incapacitating migraines over the Christmas holidays. Her supportive boyfriend Bonifacio (Patrick Criado) is a firefighter\/stripper who tries to nurse her through her affliction, as she recovers enough to reach out to friends like Patricia (Victoria Luengo), in crisis over her cheating husband, and Natalia (Milena Smit), a mother grieving for her son.<\/p>\n

We have beautiful people in enviable apartments, having interesting conversations to no real end.<\/p>\n

Quickly, however, we learn that Elsa is the creation of Ra\u00fal (Leonardo Sbaraglia), a filmmaker crafting his new script. He has his own problems: his assistant M\u00f3nica (Aitana S\u00e1nchez-Gij\u00f3n)\u00a0has to\u00a0leave for personal reasons, so now he relies on his boyfriend Santi (Quim Guti\u00e9rrez). Shifts in Ra\u00fal\u2019s life are reflected\u00a0in Elsa\u2019s story; he shapes her narrative, the god that determines her fate and that of everyone around her, so that the thrust of Elsa\u2019s story shifts abruptly when he learns something new about one of his own loved ones.<\/p>\n

Almod\u00f3var\u00a0films have\u00a0frequently\u00a0been\u00a0metafictions\u00a0and stories within stories, and it is\u00a0in the interplay between reality and artifice\u00a0that Almod\u00f3var\u00a0here\u00a0explores the moral failings of\u2026 well,\u00a0maybe himself, but certainly people like him. Ra\u00fal toys with his characters and cruelly exploits his friends in pursuit of a compelling story. The problem is that, like Almod\u00f3var himself here, he\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0found a satisfying ending.\u00a0Instead\u00a0we have beautiful people in enviable apartments, having interesting conversations to no real end. It is no hardship to spend time with these characters, because Almod\u00f3var\u2019s faculty with dialogue\u00a0remains\u00a0undimmed. But this needed a stronger finish than simply pointing out an artist\u2019s compromises\u00a0along the way\u00a0\u2013\u00a0even if the open-endedness\u00a0does succeed in\u00a0further blurring\u00a0the lines between life and art.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a meandering and unfocused affair, touching on issues the director has explored before. But if you\u2019re going to simply hang out with people, they might as well be Almod\u00f3var characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ra\u00fal (Leonardo Sbaraglia) is a modern-day filmmaker struggling to finish his latest screenplay as he deals with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206],"class_list":["post-828226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}