Stars: Antonio Banderas

Director: Pedro Almodovar

Summary: This twisted, brave, funny film from Spanish director Pedro Almodovar takes an unflinching look at the link between sex, death, and religion. Antonio Banderas stars as Angel, a sensitive student of matador Diego (Nacho Martinez), whose goring at the horns of a bull has left him obsessed with killing. In order to prove his manhood to Diego, the misguided Angel tries to rape his model girlfriend (Eva Cobo), and when that fails, he confesses to a string of murders he didn't commit. Maria (Assumpta Serna), a mysterious, attractive lawyer, takes his case but winds up falling for Diego, revealing some dark secrets of her own. The pair begin a beautifully doomed romance as a police inspector (Eusebio Poncela) begins to fathom who the real killer, or killers, may be. This was the fifth film from the talented Almodovar, and it reveals a true genius at work in his use of symbolic color, structure, metaphor, and homage to Hitchcock and Welles. MATADOR is fast-moving, disturbing, erotic, and undeniably brilliant in a way most American audiences may not be prepared for but should certainly seek out. Almodovar regulars Carmen Maura, Julietta Serano, Chus Lampreave, and Veronica Forque costar.

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Pierce Brosnan gives one of his finest performances in The Matador, a low-key buddy comedy with an agreeably sinister twist. Light-years from his former James Bond image, Brosnan is unshaven, unnerved and unpredictable as freelance assassin Julian Noble, who encounters desperate businessman Danny Wright (Greg Kinnear) in the bar of a modern Mexico City hotel. Danny is intrigued when Julian reveals that he's a "facilitator of fatalities," and his wife "Bean" (Hope Davis) is equally fascinated when Julian shows up unexpectedly, six months later, at Danny's home in Denver. Having lost his touch as a reliable hit-man, Julian needs Danny's help with "one last job," but the logistics of Julian's lethal profession (involving an employer played by Philip Baker Hall) are secondary to writer-director Richard Shepard's offbeat, slightly uneven character study, which gives Kinnear and Brosnan a memorable opportunity to riff on their established screen personas. In making Julian a likable yet tormented drifter who's made a habit of "running from any emotion," Brosnan creates an edgy yetsympathetic character as mysterious as he is fun to be around; if you're going to befriend a hired killer, you could do far worse than a guy like Julian. As Brosnan plays him, he's worthy of a sequel, but The Matadoris the kind of entertainingly quirky movie that's a hard act to follow. --Jeff Shannon

Main Language:	Spanish
Region:	Region 2
Year:	1987
Release Date:	December 4, 2006
Runtime:	102 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	O P T D 0172
Keywords:	General, Drama, Thriller, Matador
Genre:	Drama