'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' moves on at a rapid pace right from the beginning. Almodóvar keeps the film moving along while cooking up hilarious chaos all the way through. The screenplay for the film has a very play-like quality to it. The events of the film take place within a few hours of the same day. The characters are all very closely linked and a number of scenes play out in the presence of the majority of the characters in the same room.The film is a bit of a study of the female psychology and female sensibilities. There are three major female characters in the film - Pepa, Lucia and Candela. Lucia and Candela are two stereotypes and they both display weakness and inability to cope in the face of trouble. Pepa is the major well rounded character who juxtaposes those two characters and manages to show a full range of emotions and have an arc over the course of the film. She goes through the emotional spectrum ranging from feeling vulnerable and sad to feeling liberated, strong and determined, she learns a thing or two about herself in the process and comes out of the whole scenario as a different person.Almodóvar consistently keeps a very humorous tone running throughout the film, but there are also moments of great surrealism like the black-and-white dream sequence or the scene with the fire or even the poetic scene where Pepa and Ivan communicate spiritually through the dubbing of a movie scene. Almodóvar also uses the vibrancy of colours(especially red and blue) to express themes and moods. This film was made towards the beginning of his career, but his distinctive directorial touches were already noticeable. Carmen Maura is brilliant as Pepa. She gives us a living, breathing, character who has her vulnerabilities and weaknesses, but who also has the ability to deal with these weaknesses and take control of her life, help her friends and start afresh. 'Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown' is not as breathtaking as some of the subsequent films in Almodóvar's body of work, however, it is still a really solid piece of work that explores the complexities of a character. Recommended.

I can understand what this whole movie is going for, the bare camera shots, the excessive colors and the excessive drama. It all seems like it could be quite fun, when looked from aback. Unfortunately the glue that would tie this all together is the wit, and there is obviously a good amount of wit, unfortunately its not particularly interesting in English subs, much of the conversations come off as trying too hard to be funny. This is just how I feel about it, and I think there is a good chance the issue is that i'm not a native language speaker. The worst I can say about a movie is that its boring, unfortunately this approaches that description, I am however leaving some leeway because I think it is my own fault for not speaking native Spanish.

Offbeat crazy comedy with hilarious results and turns out to be pretty funny . Almodóvar comedy starred by Spanish star cast plenty of likable humour and disconcerting plots . A film dubber woman called Pepa (Carmen Maura) is on the verge of a nervous breakdown when his lover named Ivan (Fernando Guillen) leaves her, and she tries to contact him to find out why he left her . In the opening scene Pepa (Carmen Maura) and Ivan (Fernando Guillen Cuervo) are dubbing to Spanish Johnny Guitar (1954). Pepa takes on Ivan's wife (Julieta Serrano) who is zealous because of his husband left her for her . Meanwhile , her clueless friend called Candela (María Barranco , though Victoria Abril turned down the role) appears in her flat . Candela who is as unsettling as she is afraid the police are looking for her because of her boyfriend seems to be a dangerous Islamic terrorist . There also meets Carlos (Antonio Banderas) , Ivan'son , and his girlfriend (Rossy De Palma) and amazing happenings take place . Pedro Almodóvar brings us a very mixed bag of outlandish characters , rapid dialogs , and absurd situations on a luxury flat . As a pregnant woman becomes involved into loving triangles , terrorists , revenger wives and faces the greatest danger, which we carry within ourselves . Enjoyable though silly film full of good taste , offbeat characters , embarrassing mood-pieces , fun scenes , sympathetic humor and sense of style but not totally satisfactory , including conventional as well as undiluted pitfalls . The picture deals with troubled people , off-the-wall comedy , absurdities , terrorism , jealousy and many other things . The movie is pretty well and turns out to be a superior comedy to Almodovar's previous and subsequent entries . The result is an amusing but sometimes absurd comedy ,including profanities , colorful frames and a crazy strings of plots . There are many references to Pedro Almodóvar's universe throughout the film . Pedro Almodóvar and Carmen Maura's personal relationship was seriously damaged during the shooting, which Maura even defined as a "living hell". It took 18 years for them to work again . On Carmen Maura , Almodóvar told : ¨If you divide the stages of my career and labelled them with the names of the people I've worked with, there's definitely a stage in my filmmaking that would be called The Carmen Maura Years, and those films were all in the 80s - although I did work with her again on Volver (2006). At the time, I felt she was absolutely the best vehicle I could find to tell my stories. She was the actress who had the best intuition, to connect with what I wanted from her. She could be very funny and very dramatic at the same time, so it was the perfect combination for me¨ . Nice interpretations by all star-studded cast as Maria Barranco , Fernando Guillen , Rossy De Palma , Julieta Serrano and full of familiar faces as Chus Lampreave as a caretaker , Witness Jehová , and other delightfully played roles such as Kiti Mánver , Guillermo Montesinos as Cabman , Eduardo Calvo , Loles León , Joaquin Climent , Lambordero , Ana Leza , among others . And a Hollywood/Spain super star : Antonio Banderas . In fact , this movie marks Antonio Banderas's 3th collaboration with Pedro Almodóvar , after Labyrinth of passions and Matador , subsequently they made : Atame , The skin I live in , I'm so excited , among others hits . As usual in most of Pedro Almodóvar's movies, there is a small role for Agustín Almodóvar, his brother and producer of the film, who plays a building employee . Atmospheric musical score by early deceased Bernardo Bonezzi , Almodovar's ordinary ; including known songs by Chavela Vargas . Colorful and luxurious cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine . The motion picture was realized in his peculiar style by Pedro Almodovar ; he often uses symbolism and metaphorical techniques to portray circular story lines though here he directs a special comedy , including his ordinary touches . Almodovar directs throughout with splendid zip and he usually portrays strong female characters and transsexuals and along his career getting some important international prizes . His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release . In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company : El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world , making his films very popular in many countries . Oscar-winning Spanish director Pedro Almodovar subsequently made successes such as Labyrinth of passions , Law of desire , Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown , Bad education , All about my mother , Talk to her , Broken embraces , The Skin I Live In and many others . The latest from acclaimed Spanish director , Pedro Almodovar's I'm So Excited (Los Amantes Pasajeros) competing for the inaugural best European comedy honor during the upcoming 26th edition of the European Film Awards .

Pedro Almodóvar's films are always about crazy or half-crazy women meddling themselves in uncommon events of everyday life but this one breaks the record. Three more or less crack-brained women (plus a fourth one who will spent most of time in the movie deeply asleep for having drunk "gazpacho" with a lot of sedative drugs) cause a big mess the most of it taking place in a Madrid luxury apartment and the whole thing because the ex-husband of one of them (she has recently come off a lunatic asylum or clinic) and lover of another one has recently left the latter. This comedy, full of burlesque episodes and scenes has also as characters two police officers who end up by falling deeply asleep because they have also drunk the ill-fated "gazpacho", the son of the jilter and his girlfriend (the one deeply asleep as above referred). This comedy is funny and makes the most of a series of incredible plot coincidences such as for instance the awkward blond taxi driver who is always there by chance any time anyone needs a taxi and the circumstance of the son coming to the apartment of the jilted woman because she has advertised it to be rent in an estate agency. Since they didn't know each other this leads also to a funny situation. A passable movie indeed and funny enough.