--- title: "Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown" critics_score: 80 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988): what the critics said Critics' score 80 from 8 reviews: 8 positive, 0 mixed, 0 negative. All eight reviews are favourable, and the praise gathers in the same two places. Most critics describe the film as a fast, free-wheeling farce, and nearly all of them dwell on the colour, which they call garish, rich or so saturated it looks edible. Carmen Maura’s Pepa is singled out in almost every review as the performance that holds the scattered plot together, admired for her glamour, her resilience and her refusal to fall apart completely. The spread is narrow and the reservations are mild rather than structural. The cooler notices find the film slighter than its admirers do. Time Out calls it looser and dream-like, a picture in which a great deal happens while little actually occurs, and The New York Times finds it deliberately benign, charming rather than shocking. Variety, reviewing at the festival stage, praises it chiefly as the most coherent film Almodóvar has made to that point. Nobody dislikes it; the disagreement is over how much the fizz adds up to. ## Slant Magazine — Jake Cole Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 2 March 2017. The film is an ebullient comedy propelled at a manic clip, drenched in colors so rich they seem edible, and one of the finest comedies of the 1980s. Maura’s performance as Pepa ties together the scattered plot and constantly rising action. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown/) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 14 November 1988. Kael calls the film one of the jauntiest war-of-the-sexes comedies and the most visually assured of Almodóvar’s early features. She singles out its fizzier, sexier tone and the way it revels in overdramatizing without losing buoyancy. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1988/11/14/unreal) ## Little White Lies — Mathilde Dumazet Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 30 March 2016. The critic praises Almodóvar’s 1988 film as a liberating, colourful gem that balances suspense, laughter and tears while exploring women’s suffering at the hands of men. She singles out Carmen Maura’s performance for showing that being on the verge of a breakdown is not the same as fully freaking out, and highlights the film’s visual and thematic richness. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown-pedro-almodovar) ## Los Angeles Times — Kevin Thomas Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 1988. The critic praises the film as a funny, free-wheeling farce full of sly comic touches that moves Almodóvar into the mainstream while showcasing Carmen Maura's glamorous, expressive performance as Pepa. It highlights the director's keen sense of absurdity and cinematic style in a mostly apartment-bound story, with Maura's character gaining strength and self-possession through the chaos. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-12-20-ca-507-story.html) ## Empire — David Parkinson Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic calls the film an explosion of garish colour, wacky detail and surreal complications that is very funny and overflows with the unexpected. Praise is singled out for Carmen Maura's superb performance as the resilient Pepa and the ensemble farce elements. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/women-verge-nervous-breakdown-review/) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 11 November 1988. The critic calls it an entertaining, deliberately benign Spanish farce that charms rather than shocks. He singles out Carmen Maura's grand, no-nonsense performance as Pepa for special praise. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/11/movies/review-film-women-on-the-verge-a-farce-by-almodovar.html) ## Time Out — TC Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 May 2025. This is an extravagantly stylish farce in which a lot happens despite little actually occurring. It features sustained desperation alongside Wilder-like sophistication with improbable props and Almodóvar's repertory company, resulting in a looser, dream-like film. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1987. Festival review. The review deems it the most coherent film yet from Almodovar, an often hilarious and offbeat comedy. It praises the sympathetic treatment of the central woman's dilemma, strong performances especially from Carmen Maura, and solid production values. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1987/film/reviews/mujeres-al-borde-de-un-ataque-de-nervios-1200427517/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown.md