La Flor de mi Secreto

La Flor de mi Secreto (The Flower of my Secret) is a melodrama like the previous films written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, but unlike them it is in a more serious vein. The same tendency is seen in Almodóvar's most recent film, "Carne tremula". This new mood is quite refreshing as long as it does not get too serious, which it never does. The absurd humour is never absent.

The main character is Leo, a middle-aged woman, who makes a lot of money as a writer of romantic fiction. She writes under the assumed name of Amanda Gris and only welcomes the idea of writing a critical review of her own book for the newspaper she has just begun to work for. She is fed up with writing trash; she wants to be taken seriously as an author, but such a radical change does not come about easily. At the same time Leo's marriage is in shreds, not surprisingly.

Leo is surrounded by a lot of other characters that are more or less bizarre. Normality is non-existent is Almodóvar's fictional world.