@ madhuban

I must say that i agree with you on a lot of points. 
I don't think he's one of the great living filmmakers, and I also think that his "daring" exploration is usually not daring enough (for my tastes). But I wouldn't say he necessarily resolves to comfortable solutions. I totally agree with arsaib on what he wrote above regarding "Talk to her". I don't see anything simple about it, and it's deeply ambiguous. 
Let's see,... When Benigno nurses Alice, he has fallen in love with someone he doesn't know, and with whom he can deal in the only way known to him (as he has nursed his mother his whole life). But on the other hand you could say he obviously loves her for what she really is for her soul, not for her character, or the way she thinks or what she does. That's maybe what he has fallen in love with in the first place (he knew her before the accident). Of course one could also say that he can project everything he wants onto her, but from the way he treats her in the film I wouldn't assume this. He is the only one who seriously regards her as still living, and tries to talk with her in her own way. When he sleeps with her (I wouldn't call it rape) it's again very ambiguous. Besides the obvious intrusion et al, one could say that through his love for her he saves her, as she wakes up when she becomes pregnant. He is also the one who unites marko and her in the end, through his friendship and his death. Without it, the beautiful ending wouldn't have been possible. Though you might see the death of Benigno as an escape, the end nevertheless doesn't resolve anything. It just offers new hope. And Benigno is also a metaphor throughout the film for that. I wouldn't necessarily see he as a "real" character, but more of a guiding angel for all of the other people around him. He is like in a fairy-tale the catalyst for most of what happens, and his death might be not only the death of a character that is not needed anymore (plot-wise), but also the aknowledgment of Almodvar, that he is in fact too good for the "real" life that sets in again after the "comatose interplay". 
Anyway i adore the whole film. I've seen it numerous times and could go marvelling over it on and on. 

Quote:His dark humour isn't gritty enough, his kitsch is underdone, and his sensuality and wickedness simply flirt with the hemline of middle class sensibility.
I would mostly agree with this, but I don't think he is necessarily pondering to the "arthouse" circuit with it. It's maybe just the way he is. 
Again I would repeat arsaib: "While I'm glad that you normally don't distinguish between arthouse and mainstream, you are chiding his work because it crosses over. How many filmmakers today could say that about their films? Not many."