Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is a good film. It's a farce, and it's a lot more appealing/charming than most of director Pedro Almodóvar's other films. Those films try to convince us of certain facts, and bring attention to themselves in strange ways like lingering on cleavage to say that women have rights or a ubiquity of whores and transvestites. WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN is only concerned with its silly story, and a buried feeling of superstition. It's funny in ways that are held out for long moments, and it is as wonderfully colored as all of the Almodóvar films. In WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, the director introduces a cast of characters who all have strange occupations, like voice dubbing, and do strange things, like dating shiite terrorists. As the film progresses, the lead, is dumped by her boyfriend Iván, and she wallows in gazpatcho and her apartment. When she has friends over, however, she learns of a plot to kill Iván and rushes to his rescue as best she can. This is all pretty funny, well shot, and cleanly acted. The only problem with the film lies in its gestures that are obviously bringing importance or self-awareness that the film doesn't require to the forefront. For example, when our lead feels that her life is in the dumps, she burns part of her apartment. There are smaller gestures like this throughout, and that drags the film down, along with it being perhaps too farfetched.
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: ★★★