Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!It's said that hearts and minds don't always dance to the same tune. What we should know is scary and strange--criminal, even--and crumbles before our passions. Pedro Almodovar's ¡Átame!--released as Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!--follows the story of two lovers...only, they're not lovers...or, they were once. In typical Almodovar fashion, the relationships we take for granted early on develop in unexpected ways as the story grows. Ricky (Antonio Banderas) is recently freed from his stay at a mental institution, and uses his new found freedom to track down and kidnap horror-movie starlet, Marina Ozores (Victoria Abril); love ensues. (Wait, what?)
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Apparently, Ricky's relationship with Marina goes back about a year, when he had escaped and met her for a one-night stand. But for Ricky, this romantic liaison meant the world to him, and Marina has been all he has thought about. Obsessing over her, stalking her, he finally abducts her after she wraps up the shoot for the schlocky horror flick she's starring in. Needless to say, her response to this is less than enthusiastic at first, but a funny thing happens. After she finds herself in the company of Ricky--who is so naive and devoted in his love for her--her defenses soften. In kidnapping cases, this kind of behavior is referred to as Stockholm syndrome, the condition where an abducted party becomes sympathetic to their captor, a defense mechanism to soften the trauma of the experience. While this would superficially seem to explain Marina's gradual empathy toward Ricky, it does little to endorse her feelings of romantic love for him in and of itself; so of course there's more to it than that. When the sleazy director of "The Midnight Phantom"--the movie Marina's starring in--is interviewed about his new picture, it is revealed that Marina has a colored past, namely she is a former porn star and a recovering heroin addict, the latter revelation being especially revealing about her relatively quick formation of a bond with Ricky beyond kidnapper/kidnapped. Marina has to possess some kind of willpower to quit smack, but it can't be very good. Even when her toothache gets worse--exacerbated by Ricky's initial attack on her--she seeks drugs to quell the pain, eventually leading up to asking Ricky to score her some smack. Marina's temperament to resist pain is relatively low by this evidence, and she is quick to find succor. Does that mean her feelings toward Ricky are not genuine, or that she is more adept at playing the game? Who can say, but she is more willing to play along with the abduction fantasy than I suspect many women would be, even if their kidnapper was a young Antonio Banderas...of course, I could be wrong here. But Ricky does win her heart--if through sheer brute force, and that has something to do with the other aspect of her past. Although it seems like something of a throwaway detail, Marina's past as a porn star is a mark on her which has colored her acting career. The same sleazy director view her like an object for his fantasies, and we suspect that his casting of her is largely motivated by wanting to get her into bed. It also seems likely that this is not an uncommon reaction by those who know her professionally, save her sister and colleague, Lola (Loles León). But Ricky--while his affection was cemented by their sexual encounter--never brings this fact to bear, never objectifies her in a sexual capacity. Although he is interested in sex, his motivations are strangely more pure, as he pours his heart out to her, claiming he wants to marry her and be the father to her children; a far cry from the "seduction" of her straight-to-video days.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is foremost a romantic comedy, even with its acerbic approach to courtship. Ricky gets the girl, although it takes a lot more nylon rope than its counterparts. Antonio Banderas became an international sensation due to this film, and with good reason--he is charismatic, good looking, even sweet, and not afraid to act the goof, with air guitar solos in a stolen wig and applying one of the most artificial-looking mustaches for a disguise I've ever seen, but wearing it with great solemnity. So when Antonio Banderas comes to your house to kidnap you and make you into his wife, ladies, how many of you will bar the door? Sure, it's a funny joke, but the rational answer should be "all of you". When Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was first rated for distribution, it was given an X rating; while the film does have a liberal amount of nudity and an intense sex scene, true, the justification by the ratings board had to do with the idea that they had the idea that impressionable young men would see a motivation to go out and kidnap women to make them fall in love with them. As a trivial aside, the film was instrumental in the creation of the NC-17 rating, considering the implications of an X-rated film being pornographic, which Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!--contrary to the sound of the title--is not. As ridiculous of an assertion as that may have been, there is still a sliver of truth to the underlying idea behind it. Ricky's behavior toward Marina is that of a stalker, silently watching her, sneaking tokens of affection into her purse, following her home. When he does attack--yes, attack--her in her home, he hits her (twice) to get her to stop screaming at his violation of her apartment and personal space. He claims he doesn't want to hurt her, but he also threatens to kill her repeatedly if she breaks their cover when they go out to get Marina medicine to quell her toothache. But perhaps most alarmingly in tune with a kidnapper's mentality is his sense of entitlement to her love. For Ricky, it is not a matter if she will love him, but when. And while Ricky does not openly objectify Marina, his attitudes about love represent a dangerous mentality socially maladjusted men like him have about romance and relationships, that if they provide the right gifts, they are nice and sweet, promise the world, they are entitled to their reward. As if to reinforce this, in one scene when the two of them are walking on the street--handcuffed to one another to prevent Marina from fleeing--Ricky bosses her around like an abusive boyfriend. In the real world, this kind of unhealthy obsession would likely end far differently than in the film; fortunately, Almodovar's films are a part of an off-beat, colorful take on reality which is far more interesting being a bit insane than by being convincing--these crazy kids deserve one another.
Recommended for: Fans of a demented--though no less enjoyable--love story about two people with their respective damages coming together under rather unorthodox circumstances and falling in love...with a bit more rope involved than most romances.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is foremost a romantic comedy, even with its acerbic approach to courtship. Ricky gets the girl, although it takes a lot more nylon rope than its counterparts. Antonio Banderas became an international sensation due to this film, and with good reason--he is charismatic, good looking, even sweet, and not afraid to act the goof, with air guitar solos in a stolen wig and applying one of the most artificial-looking mustaches for a disguise I've ever seen, but wearing it with great solemnity. So when Antonio Banderas comes to your house to kidnap you and make you into his wife, ladies, how many of you will bar the door? Sure, it's a funny joke, but the rational answer should be "all of you". When Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! was first rated for distribution, it was given an X rating; while the film does have a liberal amount of nudity and an intense sex scene, true, the justification by the ratings board had to do with the idea that they had the idea that impressionable young men would see a motivation to go out and kidnap women to make them fall in love with them. As a trivial aside, the film was instrumental in the creation of the NC-17 rating, considering the implications of an X-rated film being pornographic, which Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!--contrary to the sound of the title--is not. As ridiculous of an assertion as that may have been, there is still a sliver of truth to the underlying idea behind it. Ricky's behavior toward Marina is that of a stalker, silently watching her, sneaking tokens of affection into her purse, following her home. When he does attack--yes, attack--her in her home, he hits her (twice) to get her to stop screaming at his violation of her apartment and personal space. He claims he doesn't want to hurt her, but he also threatens to kill her repeatedly if she breaks their cover when they go out to get Marina medicine to quell her toothache. But perhaps most alarmingly in tune with a kidnapper's mentality is his sense of entitlement to her love. For Ricky, it is not a matter if she will love him, but when. And while Ricky does not openly objectify Marina, his attitudes about love represent a dangerous mentality socially maladjusted men like him have about romance and relationships, that if they provide the right gifts, they are nice and sweet, promise the world, they are entitled to their reward. As if to reinforce this, in one scene when the two of them are walking on the street--handcuffed to one another to prevent Marina from fleeing--Ricky bosses her around like an abusive boyfriend. In the real world, this kind of unhealthy obsession would likely end far differently than in the film; fortunately, Almodovar's films are a part of an off-beat, colorful take on reality which is far more interesting being a bit insane than by being convincing--these crazy kids deserve one another.
Recommended for: Fans of a demented--though no less enjoyable--love story about two people with their respective damages coming together under rather unorthodox circumstances and falling in love...with a bit more rope involved than most romances.