A Major Disappointment

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Nice wardrobe and Adrien Broody made a very convincing bull fighter. And Penelope Cruz is very beautiful. However the movie just didn't turn out interesting or good enough.I don't know if they just focus too little on his own struggle or what... Just... Not memorable! Gave it the 5 stars cuz of some cool footage, costume and the fact Adrien looks awesome as a bull fighter. Watched this on my Netflix when I was trying to kill time so can't really complain. By the way at the end of the movie I was a little confused when the young bull fighter was freaking out said he didn't sign up for it when Adrien was almost hugging the bull, what was that suppose to mean? And his own people wouldn't give him the sword. I guess he gave up cuz the girl left him? And she's a communist? Anyway I feel like there are a lot from the book that didn't tell we'll enough in this movie

"Matador's Mistress" might be profitably viewed - and not so easily underestimated - if we try to see it as a work of art in its own right, that is, as much more than a dramatic tribute to the legendary bull-fighter Manolete or a cinematic rendering of his great passion for Lupe. Manolete's tale has been elevated to an archetypal tragedy of Love-Death. Director Meyjes has put right under our noses the mad mechanics of our wildest dream, in full confidence that it will fascinate romantic viewers without their fully registering what's going on. But the clues to a psychological study of machismo are all here. Why else does the film open with the brazen insult that Lupe has scrawled in lipstick on Manolete's mirror, an act of humiliation, ripping into her lover's essential wound? And why does it alternate, so suggestively, the scene of Manolete's and Lupe's love-making with that of the fight in which Manolete daringly caresses the bull? And Manolete's relation to his mother, plainly making Lupe her surrogate? This romance turns on the little secret that he gives up in his sexual climax, in the little death that secretly prepares the viewer for his last words. Whatever the historical relationship between these lovers, it has been taken up artfully into an exploration of the matador's psyche, and by extension, the psyche of Spain. Lupe plays a cruel game with Manolete, because the psychic roots of his devotion are so exposed, more than any woman wants to see. Yet the film asks: is there ever any other source of obsession with Woman? Lupe can only despise Manolete, even as she is ravished by him. Such a love can only find one resolution.A genuine work of art.

Remembered as one of the world's greatest matadors, I thought that there might be some clues into this person, or into what might draw someone to the controversial world of the bullring. Instead the story made Manolete out to be a love-sick puppy, somewhat clueless, and focused entirely on dying. (Don't know if this is really a spoiler, since the film begins with his funeral.) The cinematography is beautiful. The acting itself is good, and Adrian Brody is a scary dead-ringer, so to speak, for the man himself. Penelope Cruz is also good as the passionate temptress. Hollywood, of course, has to focus entirely on the woman's figure, and the turbulent romance, at the exclusion of all else that probably made up what was a fascinating life. I wouldn't watch it again.

"I'm just your mistress, Death is your wife." A true story about the love between Matador Manolete (Brody) and the woman he falls in love with Lupe Sino (Cruz). When aging bullfighter Manolete is told that a younger matador is as good or better then he is, he begins to try and cheat death even more. Will the love of Lupe help him in the ring, or endanger him? This is another very slow moving movie. The acting is very good and the scenery and bullfights are fun to watch and look at, but it just doesn't really seem to go anywhere sometimes. This movie is at its core a love story, mixed in with the action of the bullfight. There is actual footage of the real Manolete mixed in with the filmed scenes that is a very nice touch and adds to the experience. Not knowing anything about the real people or story I have no idea how accurate this is, but the love at times is tested to the limits. Overall I would say this is more of a movie that women will enjoy more then men, but it's not a horrible thing to have to sit through. I have sat through much, much worse. A very OK movie, nothing to special. I give it a B-.Would I watch again? - I don't think I will.