Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the Funniest European Films of the Past 50 Years, May 8, 2002
Pepa is having a crisis. Her lover is leaving her and now her doctor tells her she is pregnant. Her best friend may be wanted by the police for her association with a Shiite terrorist. And now her lover's psychotic wife is knocking at the door. Can she catch up with her lover, protect her friend, arrange a new romance for her lover's son, dodge the police, and disarm her lover's wife in time to foil an international terrorist plot? Well... maybe after she serves her guests some gazpacho.In any other hands WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN would collapse into mere frantic farce, but Almodovar directs Carmen Marua and an ensemble cast to a brilliant series of plausible performances that allows the viewer to buy into the story, improbabilities and all--and the result is a hilarious, touching, and fascinating film that is considerably more than the sum of its parts. This is certainly comedy at its most sophistocated, splashed with social satire and spangled with a touch of symbolism for those inclined to seek it. A number of motifs run through the film--recorded voices, telephones, and the color red are but a few examples--but Almodovar doesn't force his audience to deconstruct his film in order to enjoy it, and WOMEN ON THE VERGE is easily one of the funniest European films of the past fifty years. Those who expect farce plain and simple or who like their movies to tie up into a neat package by the time the credits roll may be disappointed--but if you can make a leap of faith and meet the film on its own terms you'll find it sly, witty, often laugh-out-loud funny... and it will leave you with a feel-good afterglow too. Strongly, strongly recommended.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Passionately Comical, June 27, 2003
Watching this movie will make any woman feel quite sane. You just cannot imagine your life could get this out of control.
The opening scenes are dreamlike, colorful and only when you watch this for the second time do you fully understand the implications of all the movie making episodes and why Ivan is walking by woman after woman saying exactly what they want to hear.
In this movie, there are a number of women who are involved with a number of men they should be running from instead of pursuing them endlessly in the hopes of returned affection.
While I started watching this in English, you might also tend to agree it is best watched with the Castilian audio track and the subtitles of your choice.
This story really begins with Pepa (Carmen Maura) oversleeping and hearing the love of her life leave a message on her answering machine asking her to pack all his things in a suitcase because he is leaving on a trip. Pepa does what any sane woman would do and tosses out everything that reminds her of Ivan. Except it takes almost the entire movie for this to happen. We wonder how she would have reacted if she had not wanted to tell Ivan she was pregnant.
Candela (Maria Barranco) is one of her best friends she is trying to avoid so she can deal with her own heartbreak. Candela is running from the law and needs a safe place to escape to until she can figure out how to warn the world about a Shiite terrorist attack she found out about from her ex. Eventually Candela makes her way to Pepa's penthouse just as Pepa is flying out the door.
Each woman is vulnerable in various ways. Lucia deals with her rejection in violent ways, Pepa by looking for her boyfriend endlessly and Candela by trying to jump from the balcony of Pepa's penthouse.
This movie is so beautifully woven together with all sort of delicious connections including the gazpacho episodes and the taxi driver. Nothing in this movie is expected. You also see each character giving her view of the entire situation. Antonio Banderas appears as Ivan's son Carlos and is hardly recognizable at first. Must have been that he is so young and is wearing glasses.
At times just the way the scenes are filmed gives it such visual appeal. It is a comedy, a mystery, a thriller depending on the music which is only used to maximum effect where needed. There is some brilliant symbolism like the bed going up in flames perhaps representing a relationship destroyed in a moment of misunderstanding or passion.
With that said, this has to be the most hysterical film I have seen "since" I watched a movie when I was seven called "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963)." This movie is also one you will not soon forget. If it wasn't for the study of sexual customs, this would be an innocent romp at best.
Vibrant, artistic and unrestricted in its originality and hilarity.
~The Rebecca Review
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watch it,if you appreciate madhouse humor;if you don't, then, June 8, 2000
WATCH THIS FILM AND LEARN TO APPRECIATE THIS KIND OF HUMOR, WHILE YOU STILL CAN... This film is one of the most funniest films, I have ever seen. Even if you watch it dozen of times, it is still funny, because [while dialogue itself is hilarious] the most fun comes from the faces and body language of the actors/characters. Statistically, this film is the most popular Spanish film in North America, so far. It is definitely the most popular and well-known of Almodovar's films.I don't want to give away the plot. Besides, the plot is too crazy to explain... You just have to see it. I'll just say that you will see: Banderas as a stuttering, young man in glasses [beautiful, just as well...], who is totally under control of his impossibly ugly fiancee [very gifted comedian actress, but the way]. Young girl, trying to commit suicide, by sliding off the penthouse balcony. Young virgin, having an erotic dream and, subsequently, "losing her virginity" in a dream, after being heavily drugged. Also, coming to the screen near you: crazy mother, strange taxi-driver, unlucky terrorists, wacky neighbors, sloppy policemen, and one over-sexed womanizer, who gets what he deserves, but not quite.... All in all, it is a total mad-house, created in a very beautiful Spanish penthouse, by a series of unfortunate circumstances. After watching this film, I thought to myself, that Shakespearean comedies have finally found their independent counter-part in the 20th cenruty's cinema.
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