In its exploration of passionate jealousy, it is entertaining but facile and melodramatic.

While it doesn't pack the emotional heft of director Pedro Almodóvar's most moving films, such as Volver, it is stylish and arresting, with powerful performances and a compelling, if at times contrived, story.

A study of betrayal and mad ambition with an appealing film-noir quality, the heart of the tale gets lost amid the fractured narrative.

Almodóvar's trademark meandering pace is even sluggish in parts, but it's easy to get caught up in the saga of blind screenwriter and former filmmaker Mateo Blanco (Lluis Homar) – who also uses the pseudonym Harry Caine – and his beloved Lena (Penelope Cruz.)

This is Almodóvar's fourth movie with Cruz, and she continues to flourish as his muse. She is superb as Lena, a wannabe actress and femme fatale, and initially the mistress of elderly tycoon Ernesto Martel (José Luis Gómez). Cruz has the look and demeanor of a young Audrey Hepburn in a daffy comedy called Girls and Suitcases. The vibrantly hued movie-within-a-movie will call to mind Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Harry spends his days writing scripts, assisted by his loyal former production manager, Judit (Blanca Portillo), and her twentysomething son, Diego (Tamar Novas). An attractive middle-aged man, Harry/Mateo has occasional trysts with women he meets.

When Diego has an accident and Judit is out of town, Harry tells him what happened more than a decade earlier involving Lena, the powerful Ernesto and Ernesto's photographer son, Ray X (Rubén Ochandiano).

While it may not elicit the affection reserved for some of Almodóvar's more heartfelt films, Broken Embraces is a tale of lust, treachery and guilt, with artful homages to classic films.

Enlarge By Sony Pictures Classics An actress playing an actress: Penelope Cruz stars as Lena, who stars in a movie-within-the-movie.