HIGH HEELS

Pedro Almodovar’s High Heels has strengths. The acting is quite good, and the cinematography is fascinating. Its mother-daughter conflict also offers potentially compelling character material.

But the film uses those qualities to frame a camp treatment of sex, lies, murder, transvestism, stardom, and a hint of incest. The source review describes its portrayal of fornication, adultery, and transvestism as totally revolting. Its R rating does not begin to communicate the source’s −3 Family Content judgment: the material is excessive and not recommended.

If you are choosing for yourself or your family, skip this one.

A successful actress returns to Madrid and reconnects with her daughter, Rebecca, after years of rejection. Rebecca is married to her mother’s former lover, and old tensions quickly resurface.

At a bistro, the two women encounter a transvestite performer impersonating the actress. The performer becomes entangled with Rebecca, while the family’s relationships grow increasingly deceptive and dangerous.

Two stars means the film has some genuine craft, but its serious defects overwhelm those strengths. The source praises the acting as quite good and the cinematography as fascinating.

The film also mixes parody, satire, farce, and sentimentality. Yet those stylistic qualities serve material the source calls totally revolting, including its treatment of fornication, adultery, and transvestism. Whatever its visual appeal, the film is not worth the moral cost.

High Heels presents a world shaped by stardom, sexual immorality, deception, murder, and tangled relationships. The mother is obsessed with celebrity, while the daughter remains devoted to her after years of rejection. The film treats these destructive entanglements as the substance of camp, parody, satire, farce, and sentimentality rather than offering a biblical vision of truth, faithfulness, or repentance.

The source review also observes that Almodovar’s women are often thinly veiled disguises for his misogyny. In this film, that concern appears through the treatment of women, stardom, and sexual relationships. The result is a distorted picture of human desire and family love, where lies and sexual betrayal drive the drama.

Scripture calls people away from sexual immorality and toward holiness: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).

The film has good acting and fascinating cinematography, but those qualities cannot redeem its excessive sexual immorality, violence, and distorted relationships. For your conscience and your family, SKIP IT. For better options, see.