María Barranco in Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988)

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It's an Almodóvar farce about, well, about women on the verge of a ....

· One of the main characters is an actress, on the verge because her long-time lover left dumped her in an answering machine message.

· Another is afraid of the police, because she just found out that her boyfriend is a Shiite extremist and she fears she may be an unintentional collaborator.

· A third is not just on the verge, but had the breakdown long ago, and has spent 20 years in a mental institution. She has faked good mental health long enough to get a release so she can kill her ex-husband.

Did I mention that the ex-husband of the third woman is also the ex-lover of the first, and that his son (Antonio Banderas, looking like the ultimate Geek) is the new boyfriend of the second? And that the son just showed up to rent a room from the first?

And then there is the entrepreneurial peroxided cab driver who loves mambo music and leopard skins, the people that miss each other by seconds, the pitcher full of gazpacho and barbiturates, people falling off ledges, an apartment full of live chickens, the mad gunfight cum car chase through the streets of Madrid, the flaming bed, and did I mention at least two times when people jump into a cab and shout "follow that cab"?

It's actually a pretty dumb movie. It is a big extravagant, silly, flamboyant, colorful, slapstick farce, and I laughed through the whole thing when I wasn't marveling at the beauty and composition of the images. Imagine a 1930's Carole Lombard movie in bright vivid colors and moved from New York to Madrid. Stir in high-camp music and minor characters and, voila!

My favorite moment was a commercial seen on TV, unrelated to the action. Carmen Maura plays a soap opera actress, the mother of a murderer, and she spins this premise off to do commercials in character. The one I loved was a detergent ad.

The murderous son comes home from a hard day of serial killing, his clothing soaked in blood. But mom washes his clothes in new Super Omo, and by the time the cops arrive, his shirt is whiter than white, without a trace of evidence. The cops are disappointed about the arrest, but really impressed with the detergent, and resolve to switch over at their own households.

That pretty much gives you the idea.

Nudity Report: Carmen Maura's breasts are seen briefly in transparent lingerie.

Critics Vote: Leonard Maltin 3.5/4

IMDB Summary: 7.7 out of 10

Box Office: NA

DVD Info: Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1. No features except a trailer.

Written by: Scoopy …Scoopy.net