'Strange way of life' is an English-speaking short film directed by one of the most prominent Spanish directors ever... who does not speak English. How (and why) this amateur piece of work with such bad writing, astoundingly dumb dialogues and even mediocre cinematography got produced and released theatrically is beyond me.

The story it's, most of the time, the same nonsensical exposition over and over. It hopes to trick the audience into believing there's a deep conflict, a sad story of tormented lovers and forbidden love, but there's none. The chemistry is just not there. The clumsy flashback scene is utterly ludicrous.

This film is something I would expect from a pretentious student at film school, a self-proclaimed artist who tries to write something deep just to show how smart they are, but fails because they don't know anything about it. However, it's not. It's a film by Pedro Almodóvar. Not worth the time, much less the cost of a full-length movie ticket.

I think its time ´A Strange Way of Life´, deserves a second review. I first saw an Almodovar film when I lived in Berlin in the 90s. I have watched the majority of his movies. And as all people, he had his ups and downs. I had always dreamt of him making an English language Movie and, ironically, my life brought me to Madrid - the centre of Almodovar´s world. It is true he doesn´t speak a very good English, which is disappointing after 30 plus years of making movies and there is an abundance of English Teachers in Madrid, I know as I am one of them! In fact he used to live above a language school. Still, eventually he released the 30 minute ´The Human Voice´, with the delicious Tilda Swinton, being as marvelous as ever. It had the style of his Madrid films. Then, we heard rumours of a full length movie with Cate Blanchett, dreamy.......but this was postponed and in the meantime, Pedro decided to create this gay western vignette ´Strange Way of Life´, starring two very talented and attractive leading actors. It is short and sweet and ends just as you are really getting into it. Its style is more TV series than theatrically camp. Some people have said there is no chemistry between the 2 actors, I beg to differ. One review said there were bums everywhere, there is in fact just one. The story, though it will not change the world and is not deeply profound, is simple, adequate storytelling for the 30 minutes. It makes sense. The flashback scene is fine. The pace was good, the dialogue simple but effective. Pascal and Hawke were convincing. It was a very pleasant way to spend 30 minutes. I do hope that Mr Almodovar will soon release a full length movie in English. We have had the tapas, now its time for a main course.