Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1990)

Perhaps only Pedro Almodóvar could come up with a story about a mental patient who stalks and kidnaps an ex-porn star--and turn it into a tender love story. But that's exactly what happens in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, a lively installment from the Spanish director's wacky middle period (after the scruffy early films, and before his mature melodramas). Two of Almodóvar's sexiest stars, Antonio Banderas and Victoria Abril, play the leads: a cracked young man with dreams of bourgeois domesticity, and an actress who used to specialize in porno and heroin. Despite that fact that he binds her limbs with cord when he leaves the house, he always returns with a cheerful "I'm home!" For all Almodóvar's outrageousness, there's a touch of classical Hollywood in his construction. And while this movie is not for the politically correct, it does play by its own warped rules. --Robert Horton Amazon.com essential video

Misogynistic Garbage

Someone should have informed the makers of this movie that women do NOT enjoy being beaten unconscious, held prisoner, victimized. This movie is an insult to humanity. The ridiculous plot glorifies this disgusting behavior and it is sickening. Lame attempts at humor fail, rampant drug use is also portrayed and glorified in this film. Is the audience to actually believe the woman would fall in love with her attacker and live happily ever after? The only thing they got right was rating it NC-17. NO minor should see this movie. I actually tossed it into the garbage after I saw it. Calling itself a comedy does not a comedy make. There are plenty of other far superior Antonio Banderas films to watch. November 30, 2007

bizarre comedy that recommends an unorthodox way to fall in love

This is the story of a mental patient who happens to be a hunk (a very young Banderas), who attempts to use an original method to get a b-film star to fall for him: abducting and then tieing her up. It isn't all that funny if you ask me, but it is well acted and interesting in spots. Really a strange drama. Almodar's later dramas are infinitely superior. March 19, 2007

Absolute gem!

This is an amzing movie, one of the best Almodovar's ever! And it is also worth seeing an Antonio Banderas from his 'pre-Hollywood' age, much, much better than now! February 9, 2007

Unsophisticated-- primitive desperation as romance for clods

I found nothing whatsoever sympathetic about Ricky. His pathetic view of romance is the same as the highschool kids that jump off a cliff together. Her view of the romance was pity for that pathetic. Disturbed individuals will see this validating their own twisted view of romance, not a behaviour to encourage. The story is essentially "The Collector" (1965) with a "they all live happily ever after" ending. Modern cave-man still drags his mate off by the hair, and you all go "oh, isn't that romantic." "The Taming of the Shrew," or "Zandy's Bride," are far better "battle of the wits," romances, if that's how you prefer to define it. This was simply the battle of the witless... December 2, 2006

Perceptively witty / sexy comedy. Banderas as psycho!

`Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down' directed by the Spaniard, Pedro Almodovar and starring Victoria Abril and a young Antonio Banderas strikes me as great fun with at least a few sparkling moments of insight or perception worthy of Woody Allen.

The dominant aspect of this 1989 movie for us today is the Banderas performance that I kept comparing to the performances of Mel Gibson and Brad Pitt as psychopaths in `Conspiracy Theory' and `The 12 Monkeys' respectively. Banderas plays a newly released inmate from an insane asylum who, on the face of it, immediately takes up his asocial behavior by stalking a porno movie / Wes Craven type movie star who is just finishing up her work on a `movie within a movie'. While Gibson and Pitt really pushed their characterizations over the top, to the point where Pitt was nominated for an Academy award for his role, Banderas keeps his nuttiness toned down to be almost imperceptible. This is good, because it makes his motive for stalking the actress more believable. He is claiming that an earlier meeting he had with the actress turned him around and led him to convincing his parole board to free him from the asylum.

The major perception used in the plot is based on the fact that the female lead has a bad toothache, but since she was once a heavy user of opiates, most painkillers no longer work for her, so she needs either the very strongest prescription drugs or illegal morphine or heroin.

This is rated NC-17, but as a rather farcical satire, the few scenes or explicit sex and nudity are more funny than they are titillating. That still doesn't mean I would let a 12-year-old watch the movie, but I would get it for a great `stay at home' date movie.

I suspect there is enough substance in this film to warrant two or three viewings and I would especially recommend it as one of the great sexy comedies, at least until I see and review more of Almodovar's films.
January 7, 2006

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