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Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios

  • Status: Released
  • 25-03-1988
  • Runtime: 88 min
  • Score: 7.404
  • Vote count: 915

Pepa resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events.

Carmen Maura

Pepa

Antonio Banderas

Carlos

Julieta Serrano

Lucía

María Barranco

Candela

Rossy de Palma

Marisa

Kiti Mánver

Paulina Morales

Guillermo Montesinos

Taxi Driver

Chus Lampreave

Jehovah's Witness Goalkeeper

Eduardo Calvo

Lucía's Father

Loles León

Secretary

Ángel de Andrés López

Police I

Fernando Guillén

Iván

Juan Lombardero

Germán

José Antonio Navarro

Police II

Ana Leza

Ana

Mary González

Lucía's Mother

Lupe Barrado

Secretaria Paulina

Joaquín Climent

Police I Spot

Chema Gil

Police II Spot

Gabriel Latorre

Priest

Francisca Caballero

TV Announcer

Carlos García Cambero

Breakdown Employee

Agustín Almodóvar

Real Estate Employee

Carmen Espada

Pharmacist

Federico García Cambero

Pharmacy Clerk

Gregorio Ros

Doctor

Imanol Uribe

Husband

José Marco

Godfather

CinemaSerf

"I was a virgin this morning, but I'm not sure now...". Well after ninety minutes of these shenanigans, I'm surprised she was even certain about the morning. The story follows actress "Pepa" (Carmen Maura) who is despondent after being left by boyfriend "Iván" (Fernando Guillén). Determined to find out why, and pregnant, she contacts his former wife "Lucia" (Julieta Serrano), herself fresh from a lengthy stint in a sanatorium and living with her rather geeky looking twenty-something son "Carlos" (Antonio Banderas) but they can't really shed much light on his behaviour either. Whilst all this is going on, a group of terrorists is believed to have carried out an atrocity in Madrid and it might be that her best friend "Candela" (Marisa Barranco) could be mixed up as she had them stay in her apartment for an evening of furious jogging - so now she's in hiding. With the media and the cops on the trail of the killers, Pedro Almodóvar now crams enough slapstick comedy into this to rival anything Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau ever did. There's nothing nor anybody left out - even a bleach blond gay guy and some ridiculous high heeled antics to keep the pace rocketing along til a denouement that closes the story, but that hardly matters. This is about the characters and both Maura and and Barranco are on entertaining form delivering a pithy and humorous script as the plot lurches from the daft to the dafter. Well worth a watch this.