With this film, John Waters and Pedro Almodovar,whether they were aware of it or not, showed how close in sensibility they were to the sheer zaniness of family dysfunction -- at times, the incidents of Almodovar's WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS nearly mirrors the incidents of Waters' POLYESTER in the fact that it's a hilarious and often wicked portrayal of a Spanish family having a spectacular meltdown full of crazy while the housewife tries to maintain hers at all costs. Gloria (Carmen Maura), the housewife in question, has an addiction to No-Doz pills. Her husband Antonio (Angel de Andres Lopez) works as a taxi driver and has a plan involving the forgery of Hitler's diary. Gloria has two sons -- neither on a good path, one being a pusher, the other a prostitute. Her meddling mother (Chus Lampreave), a female neighbor and friend who also works as a prostitute (Veronica Forque), and a weird little girl who lives upstairs with her control-freak mother (Kiti Manver) add to the convoluted mess that soon is out of control and treading some rather risky grounds. However, Almodovar clearly made this movie as a way to express an irreverent sensibility of overblown urban dramas just before he exploded unto cinematic consciousness in his internationally acclaimed WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN. Like the early films of Waters, this is his way of giving the entire film and TV community the finger -- watch how he uses Cecilia Roth in a coffee commercial or how he casts himself and another man to play the part of man and woman in a video called "La Bien Pagá". Cheeky and quirky, indeed.
Review of What Have I Done to Deserve This?
