Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

1988 comedy

Rating: 17/20

Plot: An actress attempts to confront her actor boyfriend who has decided to leave her. She's got a suitcase full of his things and wants to talk to him before he leaves on a trip. His wife, his son, his son's girlfriend, the actresses friend who happens to be dating a terrorist, and the actor's new mistress all get involved. It's madness!

My favorite character in this is the blond mambo cab driver who has a mini-convenience store in his taxi. Like the rest of the movie, he's like a gaudy cartoon, his hair clashing with everything else on the screen. At one point, he's told to "follow that cab," and he replies, "I thought this only happened in the movies." His experience was just like mine. Most of what happens in this farcical black comedy would only happen in a movie. And there's not much you see in this film that looks like anything in real life. Almodovar uses color here as well as any director I've ever seen. In fact, this movie is really more about colors and shapes than it is about the characters and what they're doing. There are so many scenes that showcase Almodovar's visual creativity, his unique vision. The wife's profile as she rides on a motorcycle. Projected light cutting the screen in half horizontally. Two policemen simultaneous sipping gazpacho. A shot of a character in a telephone booth with another character obliviously storming past while, in the background, a third character ominously approaches. And my favorite--the shot of the mambo cab driver crying. As my regular four-and-a-half readers know, I'm a sucker for visuals, and this is a feast for the eyes from beginning to end. The story started difficult and at first, I thought I was going to have difficulties connecting with so many women characters, but their story bounces around wonderfully and is consistently surprising and very very funny.