Liner notes and plot synopses, in describing this film, often emphasize the sexual abuse of young Ignacio and Enrique by the priest/teachers at their 1960s chilhood boarding school in Spain -- However, Almodóvar uses their story not so much as an exposé of pedophelic abuses in the Catholic Church, but as a convenient and effective setting for a complex noir melodrama -- Each of the protagonists reveals their story as they remember or choose to see it -- "People are not whom they seem to be, new identities are assumed, and memories create ideals that become more important than reality" (Klemm) -- Many commentators compare this film to Hitchcok's "Vertigo" -- It is a beautiful and entertaining film, deserving to be placed in the lexicon of great gay themed cinema, as well cinematic thrillers in general.