Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Actors: Victoria Abril, Antonio Banderas, Loles León

Synopsis: Ricky (Antonio Banderas) leaves a mental institute and proceeds to kidnap Mariana (Victoria Abril) on the basis that she won’t be freed until she falls in love with him.

Review: This film hasn’t aged at all well and really does, especially in light of the #metoo movement, look like an unfortunate anomaly in the otherwise compassionate and humane filmography of Pedro Almodóvar.

The film has a number of problems, not the least of which is its murky attitude towards its story of a mentally unhinged male character, Ricky, kidnapping his female idol, Mariana, until she will fall in love with him. There are ways that Almodóvar tries to navigate the inherent immorality of the scenario, but it never really justifies the end-result of Mariana actually falling for Ricky, and the film, in essence, valorising Ricky’s quest. Yes, Almodóvar places this within a screwball context, some removes from concrete reality; yes, Almodóvar is riffing on the phenomenon of Stockholm syndrome; yes, Almodóvar creates some greater context and pathos for Ricky’s core personal trauma that leads him to this extreme tactic; and yes, he does try to find the admirable in Ricky’s strange sense of ardency for Mariana. All these factors though do not negate that Almodóvar is trying to dramatise and make humorous an unequivocally unpleasant act.

Even more damning is that in its lighter guise as a theatrical farce (it could easily pass off as a play), it just isn’t that funny. You can spot the conceits a mile off, and the scrapes and saucy wordplay taking place on ageing Máximo’s crazy B-movie film set aren’t that amusing. It doesn’t help that Máximo’s sexist jokes (that Almodóvar is presenting as quirky little foibles from a likeable old rogue) are distinctly uncomfortable to watch now as well. (July 2020)