Why so much hype?

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Pedro Almodavar today is considered one of the major directors & screenplay and story writers.Law & Desire was only his sixth film effort.This early effort (1987) was & still is an ADULT NC 17 rated film. The sex scenes between the 2 MALE stars are very hot & steamy. The director is known for his very explicit sex scenes both 'hetero & homo', They are always done in good taste, I wish some other directors in current films would show such good taste & edit there steamy sex scenes in the same way that Almovadar does.Euserbio Ponsela & Carmen Maura star as brother and sister. He is a film director who has a penchant for other males. One of which is Antonio Bandaras, both actors are very handsome etc.We all know that Antonio now is one of Hollywood's big stars. Euserbio never made a Hollywood film BUt still is a name performer in Spain.Carmen Maura was & still is an international STAR of high caliber.The film is a murder mystery as well.Almodavar's more recent film are of a much higher caliber, This however is a first rate very well acted & made film.Ratings: *** (out of 4) 87 points (out of 100) IMDb 8 (out of 10)

I once read that Pedro Almodovar wanted to reach out his audience via their hearts, their minds and their genitals, with this, my first experience with the director, he most certainly sticks to his aims. The film opens with a young man masturbating upon the orders of his director, from here on in the tone is set for what is, a bonkers, yet highly entertaining picture.The plot revolves around the sexual adventures of gay director Pablo Quintero and his transsexual sister, Tina, her struggle with men and the duty of bringing up a young daughter who she fathered when she was a he!, still with me?. Into their lives comes Antonio Benitez, he's sexually fascinated with Pablo but gets his nose put out of joint upon learning of Pablo's love of another guy called Juan, things are about to get darkly unnerving.Law Of Desire is stylish and full of tricky eccentricities, it's also very much in your face with its blatant urge to be seedy, however it's backed up by wonderful performances from Antoino Banderas {Benitez}, Carmen Maura {Tina} and Eusebio Poncela {Pablo}, whilst it's director is clearly a talent that was, at this time in his life, making films with attitude and a devil may care spirit. 7/10

As you see from the other users' comments (the ones who liked the film, I mean), the director likes reinventing themes from previous movies. The links are a great insight into what he had wished to convey in his earlier works but hadn't quite fully expressed. It was the same for Ansel Adams, whose most popular work was actually reissues of his older photos, but with different photo exposures and significantly more dramatic contrast. I've loved watching Almodovar's tastes refine through the years (it could be argued that John Waters followed the same artistic maturation at roughly the same time). If you can, please watch this film with Spanish-speaking friends. There's just too much for the subtitles to convey, and you're missing out on facial expressions and backgrounds if your eyes are glued to the subtitles."Antonio, abre la puerta!" (sound of fan flinging)

This is not Almodovar's greatest film. The plot and script tends to melodrama, the acting is a little two-dimensional as a result. Almodovar returns to some themes over and over again in his films, so this film can be seen as an early glimpse of some of the key themes in All About My Mother and Talk To Her, both of which are great films in my view.But this film is worth seeing. The cinematography and the music are great. Almodovar's Madrid is always lovely to look at. And the plot takes its obvious and inevitable course at reasonable pace, so you don't get bored.