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.

One thing about Pedro Almodovar's films is that they are never boring. Another is that women do whatever they need to do to get by. This film is no different and it is almost as if he followed the theme here with Volver. In fact, the star of this film, Carmen Maura, is also in Volver.

Gloria (Carmen Maura) does whatever she needs to do to get by, whether it is popping No-Doze or sniffing glue. She works constantly to provide for her family, as her no-good husband (Ángel de Andrés López) is not pulling his weight.

One son sells dope and the other likes to have sex with his friend's fathers. Grandma (Chus Lampreave) sits around talking about the village.

Her best friend Cristal (Verónica Forqué - Matador) is a prostitute.

Almodovar presents an upside down world where everything is exaggerated. This is a thinking man's movie. You really have to pay attention to get it. That is not to say it is not enjoyable, but you miss a lot by not fully participating.

You notice that Cristal is a lot more mentally healthy that Gloris; that her son is not a victim, but in charge of his sexuality; and there is enough other things going on to really keep you interest.

Almodovar is never boring.

In Madrid, the housewife Gloria (Carmen Maura) lives in a tiny apartment with her husband, the taxi driver and forger Antonio (Angel de Andres- Lopez); her lunatic mother-in-law, who is addicted in bottled water and cupcakes; and two teenage sons, one of them a drug dealer and the other gay.

Gloria works as cleaning lady to raise some money for her dysfunctional family and is addicted in pills; her best friend is her neighbor, the call-girl Cristal (Verónica Forqué). Antonio has a secret passion on a decadent German singer for whom he had worked as driver in Germany. A writer tries to convince Antonio to forge letters from Hitler and travels to Germany to meet the singer to invite her to participate in the scheme. Meanwhile Gloria delivers her gay son to a pervert dentist. Her mother-in-law finds a lizard while walking with her grandson on the street and they call it Dinero (Money) and bring it home. When Gloria has an argument with Antonio, she hits him on the head with a piece of wood, killing him. Now the police detectives investigate the murder case.

"¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto!!" (meaning "What did I do to deserve this?) is a tragicomic film by Almodóvar with the adventures of a housewife in Madrid. The situations are hilarious and absurd, and the characters are composed by a forger, a kleptomaniac, a drug-dealer, a homosexual, a prostitute, a psychic, a lunatic, an addicted, an impotent with premature ejaculation, an alcoholic writer, an abusive mother and so on. The result is really a funny and politically incorrect film of this anarchic director. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Que Fiz Eu Para Merecer Isto?" ("What Did I do to Deserve This?")