Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Movie Review

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is a 1988 Spanish comedy drama film directed by Pedro Almodovar and starring Carmen Maura and Antonio Banderas. It is such a mediocre, ridiculous movie.

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“For two days everyone has been saying no to me.

Now it’s my turn to say no“

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I really did not like this movie. I usually like the works of this director, but this being one of Almodovar’s first films, it is so disappointing and weak. The plot here is silly to put it mildly. I felt as if I was watching a soap opera instead of a respected movie because its plot is so ridiculous and so soapy that it really was difficult to watch.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown is filled with many characters and all of them are somehow connected in such a stupid way. Not one of them was at least mildly interesting. Pepa is okay as the protagonist and Carmen Maura is the highlight here as she gave a good performance, but every other actor is forgettable as are their characters in my honest opinion.

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This film is a black comedy and I guess I can see why someone would like it and would find it funny, but this was totally humorless to me as I never even smiled, let alone laughed. Those endless impossible to happen in real life scenarios were just too over-the-top and ridiculous to me, but in a negative way. Yes, I can see some of the moments being entertaining to some, but this was for the majority of time not only unfunny, but also incredibly annoying to watch.

Another problem here is its first act as it just starts off in such an annoying way with that TV show and unfortunately only goes worse from there as it never introduces you to its characters properly and it just becomes too difficult to follow and never welcoming at all. I was so frustrated watching this film and especially that first half.

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The ending is somewhat sweet and memorable and there were a couple of passable moments, but almost every scene here is pretty useless and annoying. The film is awfully edited as it is just so frustratingly frantic that it was really tough to watch. But the script is the major problem to which I return as the cause of this failure. If those endless scenarios were funny or at least entertaining, I would forgive the movie for being silly and over-the-top. But they weren’t like that whatsoever and that is why this is a mediocre affair. In the end, this Spanish “classic” is such an overrated mess and such a big letdown for me.