Manolete fascinated me from the very beginning with a fantastic score and once I saw Adrien Brody I knew the movie would be good. This actor somehow never disappoints and here he hadn't either; in fact I can easily shout out to all of the actors who made their characters into living human beings. The story of a bull fighter called Manolete is told in the very eyes of Adrien Brody who, even when he's not speaking, gives more to the viewer than perhaps the director himself had intended to. In his sad eyes there's great sorrow and even greater love for a woman who he cannot give up but also cannot take in as his whole heart and soul is in the thing he does for a living and he doesn't imagine his life without it. There comes a time in everyone's lives when we have to choose what's more important to us - career or family and Manolete has made his choice long before he met Lupe, played stupendiously by Penelope Cruz. I wouldn't call this movie a great one though as it lacks proper pacing, has at times bad editing and continuation failures, some scenes are extremely long whereas others don't give enough and this contrast leads the movie to the end and leaves you with mixed emotions because the story itself, although as old as the world, is told from an unusual angle and is dramatically perfect but the way it was shown was far from it.
