Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

I probably would not have gone to the theater to see this film. This is not the kind of comedy I enjoy. It had it's humorous scenes but over all was not highly rated by me.

The film began with Pepa, an actress who is having an affair with a married man (Ivan), finding out that she is pregnant with his child. Pepa show an array of emotions toward Ivan. Although she only speaks to him face to face in the last scene of the film. Pepa conversations with Ivan were through the answering machine, she cussed at him stating she hated him, she checked the machine multiple times a day so she wouldn't miss his call. She threw the phone only to have it fixed in a few minutes. She accidentally set the bed on fire and calmly watched it burn. Unfortunately her reactions were probably "normal" for the situation. As a nurse, I was surprised that she could go to the pharmacy and purchase so many sleeping pills without a prescription. The action that wasn't "normal" was spiking the gazpacho with sleeping pills which was intended for Ivan.

In the mist of Pepa's predicament, her best friend Candela appeared with her own drama. I believe Candela to be an over dramatic women. She was very self involved. She had spent the weekend with a Shiite terrorist and felt the police were after her. She attempted to jump off the terrace of a penthouse apartment. I'm sure this was for attention, to have "all eyes on her".

Pepa had her apartment for rent and of all people, Ivan's son, Carlos and his girlfriend, Marisa show up to view Pepa's apartment. Marisa drinks some of the gazpacho and falls into a deep sleep. Meanwhile Carlos kisses Candela while his girlfriend is sleeping in the other room.

Ivan's mentally ill wife thinks Ivan and Pepa are going away on a trip when actually Ivan is taking newest mistress, who is none other than the wife's feminist lawyer. The movie was just too much. Most of the characters end up in Pepa's apartment. All of which have their own issues that are in one way or the other interlinked with each other. The film became absurd and so unbelievable that is wasn't funny.

All the women who were involved with Ivan knew about each other and didn't seem to blame Ivan. They blamed each other and the wife blamed her own son for Ivan's actions. This is where I believe American women to be different. I don't think American women would accept such unfaithfulness in a man. If the film had been made in the United States, the women probably would have been a little more aggressive with Ivan.

One additional note I have to offer is that Carlos was not raised by his father but he was exactly like him. Kissing one woman while his girlfriend was in the other room, makes one wonder how many other women there were.