Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)

SPOILER ALERT: If you want to experience this film like I did, don't read this or any other review. My spoiler comes in the last paragraph. The plot is simple: a mentally deranged but nevertheless charming and good-looking young man with a criminal history decides, upon his release from an institution, to kidnap a porn queen with whom he is obsessed with the idea of forcing her love him, bear his children and spend the rest of her life together. To accomplish this, rather than trying more traditional means to reach his goal, he breaks into her apartment, beats her when she resists, ties her up with ropes, handcuffs her, puts a gag around her mouth, and keeps her captive for days. She resists and tries to escape several times without success. Up to this point, the film holds good suspenseful interest. That the man has some sympathetic qualities makes it less of a good vs. evil plot. After all, he's a human being, and, for that matter, so is she. And I want to emphasize that I watched the film and wrote this review before reading any reviews here or anywhere else. SPOILER: My objection comes with the ending. If the idea is to dramatize the Stockholm syndrome, where a hostage develops a psychological alliance with her captors as a survival strategy during captivity, the film fails miserably. The ending is not only absurdly improbable, it is offensive. Let me be clear: I am not a woman, but as a man I am loathe to believe that the way to a woman's heart – any woman – is through brute physical force, ropes, gags, handcuffs, being a great lay, and forcing her against her will to love him. Maybe it is sometimes, but not in my world. More realistic would be that he gets caught, sent back to the institution, and has a continuing and possibly sympathetic relationship with the girl. I'm probably missing the point. Possibly this is satire, an attempt at humor, or maybe I'm suffering from some sort of cultural myopia (I hope not). But I don't buy it. It's too bad, because the filmmaker made an otherwise decent film. It just seems like he couldn't think of an ending, so he just stuck this one on to make everyone happy. Everyone, I guess, except me.

Another Pedro Almodóvar film starring Antonio Banderas as a man obsessed with a young woman in his captivity, this may be his closest early work to 'The Skin I Love In', and with moody music from Ennio Morricone and lots of mobile camera-work, it is almost as atmospheric. 'Átame!' is, however, chiefly a comedy, known by the jovial English title of 'Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!' no less (the original title translates as just 'Tie Me Up!'). More accurately, 'Átame!' is a romantic comedy, or an acute subversion of one as Bandares becomes set on making a lady who he had a one night stand with years ago passionately love him. Absurd a goal as this is, Bandares is so down-to-earth with his true romantic intentions (not wanting to copulate until she is ready) that it is hard not to root for him even when he goes to extremes like tying up lead actress Victoria Abril, hitting her on the head and threatening her with a knife. By the end of the film, one gets the sense that he really adores her. The film sends some very mixed messages though, particularly in terms of how Abril responds to his advances. It is also hard not to wish that the movie set scenes featured more prominently. Generally speaking, however, this is a worthwhile film, full of memorable touches - none more so than an incident with a bath toy that brings to mind the short film in Almodóvar's 'Talk to Her'.

Pedro Almodóvar creates an interesting film to add to the romantic comedy category. One is led to believe that this film is not a comedy until various plot devices reveal just how far Ricky (Antonio Banderas) is willing to go to capture the heart of Marina (Victoria Abril). Different perhaps from other films from Almodóvar, is the female centered plot. This time it is shared between both male and female. Ricky is released from a mental institute with various handyman skills that prove useful in his pursuit of Marina. Marina is a former porn star and drug addict. These two have met once before the story's events. After a short trip to the set in which Marina works, Ricky witnesses what should have been the end of the film being shot. It can then be inferred that Ricky is not the only one with an obsession with Marina, but also the director of the film being shot in the movie. Quickly after, Ricky quickly sets out to work on getting Marina to love him by giving her the chance to understand him. He makes his way into her apartment and ties her up. While Marina is relatively helpless against Ricky, being physically tied up, she has also tied Ricky up emotionally as he can think of nothing else but her. Perhaps not heartwarming in the soft sense, but his dedication and determination is something to be noted.

Minor Almodovar it may be but this early, black comedy-thriller still takes no prisoners with it's relentless tale of obsession, (obsession is something Almodovar seems to be obsessed with). The Hitchcockian motifs are still there, as are his (too) obvious love of cinema and a totally exaggerated riot of colour which, in this case, completely transcends camp.Antonio Banderas is the young 'hero' recently released from a mental institution who kidnaps junkie and porn-star Victoria Abril in the hope that if she gets to know him up close and personal she may even fall in love with him. It's a bit like "The Collector" with the gloves off. There is something faintly Neanderthal-like in Banderas' assumption that slapping a woman around and tying her up is going to make her fall for him and Almodovar tickles our sensibilities by going down a few dark streets other directors wouldn't dream off.Both Banderas and, in particular, Abril are terrific. When they finally do get down and dirty and do the business there is a genuinely erotic charge in their acting and there is just enough ambiguity in the ending to give the film that extra edge.