Review of What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984) by Stuart K — 19 Jun 2012

Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, his 4th feature film, and this is a pitch-black comedy with bad taste jokes and subplots involving paedophilia and prostitution, all focused around a family breakdown.

Despite being in very poor taste, it works and manages to be compelling and quite funny as well, with some good inventive moments within. Set in post-Franco Madrid, and housewife Gloria (Carmen Maura) lives on the breadline in an apartment with her family including husband Antonio (�ngel de Andrà (C)s López), who longs to be with a German woman he chauffeured years before, her two sons Miguel (Miguel �ngel Herranz) who is a homosexual and Toni (Juan Martínez), who is a drugs dealer.

Then there's Antonio's mother (Chus Lampreave), keeps bottled water and fairy cakes locked away in a cupboard, and has a pet lizard called Money. Gloria has become addicted to cleaning products, but she soon becomes friends with prostitute Cristal (Verónica Forquà (C)), who helps Gloria keep it together when things are bad.

But after one unexpected and sudden tragedy, everyone's lives suddenly change. It's a film which owes a debt of gratitude to John Waters' Polyester (1981), it has an amusing sequence with a telekinetic child which predated Roald Dahl's Matilda by a few years, even a plot point from Dahl's own Lamb To The Slaughter is referenced here.

But, Almodóvar manages to have fun with the characters and makes what could have been a dark, serious film, into a hilarious and compelling film.