22 years before seeing a movie, a controversy, and an absence from TV cause one to have high expectations. Well... besides the always fun to watch Antonio Banderas, and a couple of funny scenes (German retirement and that bathtub scuba diver), I was bored most of the time. The preposterous premise didn't help - it would've taken a much better film to pull it off for me. Oh, I realize who Almodovar is, but still think that this movie is overrrated. I was expecting an astute psychological exploration of bondage and a much more compelling film in general. It's kind of amusing and not very serious at all. And unless I missed something, the crucial plot moment (about Marina's feelings) was way underplayed. I do get the Stockholm syndrome, but the way it was rendered made no sense to me. Taming of the shrew? That's an old one that's been done to death and very well by others.
If you don't know, this is the movie that prompted the invention of the NC-17 rating. This is for nudity, masturbation, and toilet scenes, most of those being gratuitous. Otherwise, the theme of a female captive being physically controlled and abused by a (deranged) male kidnapper before rewarding him with the love he asked from her... WILL be distasteful to some, regardless of Banderas' charms.