Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

This movie was an adventurous, exciting foreign film that was about the theme of romance. The movie was about a female character, Pepa, who tries desperately to find her boyfriend because of news she has to tell him. However, it was not only about her journey to track down her boyfriend, but it also included love triangles. These love triangles were seen throughout the movie between numerous characters. The movie begins with Ivan saying romantic pick-up lines to several different women. From the beginning the viewer assumes that Ivan is a ladies’ man and probably likes many different women. The film explores the idea of romance. Ivan and Pepa share the same job in which they are voice over actors who re-make foreign films. It is assumed that their careers are what connected them and led them to having a relationship. It is also ironic that the scene they voice-over is about marriage and love. This sets up the romance theme that is farced throughout the entire movie. The majority of the movie is about Pepa trying to track down Ivan to tell him some kind of news, which she has learned from the doctor. While she searches for him there are a lot of other side plots. One in which creates many love triangles. Ivan’s son (from his previous marriage), Carlos and his snobby fiancé are introduced into the movie because they are looking to buy Pepa’s apartment. While they are over looking at the penthouse, Carlos’s fiancé drinks Gazpacho, which Pepa previously laced with sleeping pills. Pepa originally meant for Ivan to drink the Gazpacho because she wanted him to stay. Ivan was a man who was always on the move so in order to keep him in one place she spiked his favorite soup with sleeping pills. However, Carlos’s fiancé was the first to drink it and while she was knocked out Carlos hooked up with Pepa’s good friend Candela. This created the movie’s first love triangle. Candela was an old friend who was on the run after being used by recently arrested Shiites. Candela was afraid the police would arrest her for being associated with these recently captured terrorists. Carlos recommends Candela see a feminist attorney. After being approached by Pepa, the attorney wants nothing do with Candela’s case. This creates a lot of tension between the two females. Towards the end of the movie it is discovered that the attorney was seeing Ivan. This created yet another love triangle that director Pedro Almodóvar uses. The two share a deep moment of serenity and try to forget about the crazy day they experienced. It seems apparent that they are both going to ditch their cheating boyfriends in an effort to find true love. Pedro Almodóvar uses the role of women as the focal point in this movie because he believes that women make better characters. His approach was very obvious throughout this movie because it seemed like there were many interactions amongst women. However, it is interesting to note that the subject of all of the drama is the result of men. Throughout this movie men are seen as using women to get what they want. This behavior is clearly portrayed through the characters of Ivan, Carlos and the male Shiite. The drama that follows is seen primarily through the female characters, which Almodóvar uses because he thinks women are more dramatically interesting. This European film maker also created interconnecting love triangles in which the man left a woman for another woman. This created much drama and tension between certain characters. This constant change in partners made the audience very aware that one of the points the movie wanted to make was that love is not always a definite thing ~ relationships change. It was interesting to see that the father and son character were both examples of the men who were in the middle of each triangle. It seemed that the father played a role in teaching the son about relationships. Ivan was made out to act very impulsive, which was also a trait displayed in Carlos. Overall, I really enjoyed this movie because of the comedy and the fun that was being poked at the characters that were involved in the love triangles. The movie did a good job intertwining all of the relationships among the characters. It was certainly not a story that I would have taken seriously, but the adventure and thrill made this movie appealing.