A poor gay boy reads all the time. His strong-willed mother recognizes that he has a future; she wants to send him to the seminary, because that's the way for a poor boy to get an education. The boy reacts: "I don't WANT to be a priest." The tough, beleaguered mom explains the ways of the world. She doesn't have any money. Her dipshit husband moved her to a cave--a cave!--and more-or-less disappeared. (The absence of the father is one of many things this movie handles so quietly, so deftly.) The mom needs to make her cave beautiful, and she is smart, so she sees opportunities. An illiterate manual laborer stops by; Mom speaks up. The laborer can apply tiles to the cave walls; in exchange for this, little Pedro Almodovar will teach the laborer to read. (Let's not pretend that the little boy is anyone other than Pedro Almodovar.) This small exchange sets so many things in motion. It will be a big source of Pedro's love and admiration for his...